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So, the Bangladesh team have finally lost to Pakistan in a nail-biting finish in the Asia Cup cricket even as Team India failed to make it to the final, and although Sachin Tendulkar cracked his 100th ton in cricket, that really doesn’t make him a match winner.

However, if it had been former India captain Rahul Dravid, the story could have been different.

Could India have won the match against Bangladesh in the semi-finals if Sachin did not have to chase his 100th ton, a record that is unlikely to be breached by any player in the game of cricket?

His century had slowed down the run rate substantially. We’ve seen India bask in Sachin’s glory but his glory seldom turns out to be victory for India.

When players score centuries, it is expected that it will come with a win for the team also. But so far as Sachin goes, this record is dismal.

For instance, during the first 48 centuries he scored, India won a mere 33 times, which is not something the country or Sachin can flaunt.

During his tons, Team India lost 13 times and once there was a tie. This translates into a poor show when we convert it into percentage.

It indicates that Tendulkar’s percentage of centuries in case of an India win is 68.75 per cent, which is poor.

Another dampening fact is that in 33 matches, Sachin’s centuries have turned out to be match winners. Unfortunately, they were against minnows like Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

And, Sachin getting his 100th ton against another minnow (Bangladesh) will not mean celebrations the way the Master Blaster would have desired it to be.

In Australia, he missed his 100th ton on occasions, and probably, he would have been happier if it had come from Down Under (Australia).

Now, a look at the stats of former India captain, Dravid, who has been dubbed as “the wall” reveals the difference. It is remarkably better than Sachin so far as the ratio of wins for India to Dravid’s centuries go.

Last year, 32 of Rahul’s 36 test tons have turned out to be ‘wins’ for India. So, Dravid has actually proved to be more useful for Team India than Sachin.

Australia, Pakistan and England are one of the toughest teams to play in today’s game.

Last year’s data culled out from Cricinfo showed the following:

In the test format of the game, Rahul Dravid’s average against these countries was almost 62 while Sachin’s was 53. In one-dayers, the figures were 42 and 39 respectively.

Not to undermine Sachin’s contribution, we think we should put match winners on a higher pedestal rather than those whose scores contribute less to the team.

So, can we not rate Rahul Dravid higher than Sachin, because the former is a match winner rather than a player for individual scores?