ESPNcricinfo Awards 2008 readers' choice: Sachin Tendulkar holds sway

ESPNcricinfo's readers begged to differ with the jury when it came to the two batting awards, voting Sachin Tendulkar to wins in both categories in the Readers' Choice segment of the ESPNricinfo Awards. Tendulkar's match-winning 103 not out in Chennai against England - his first fourth-innings hundred in a Test win for India - won by a small margin from Virender Sehwag's 201 not out, the jury's pick for the prize.

Tendulkar also took the ODI batting title for his 117 not out against Australia in the first final of the CB Series. The innings won by a sizeable margin (40% of readers' votes) from Yuvraj Singh's blazing 138 against England in Rajkot.

The two bowling awards confirmed the jury's picks by impressive margins. Dale Steyn was picked by 36% of the readers in the Test Bowling category for his second-innings five-for in Melbourne, and Ajantha Mendis' 6 for 13 in the Asia Cup final won the ODI Bowling prize by a landslide 55% from second-placed Ishant Sharma's 14% (for his 4 for 38 against Australia in the CB Series).

Graeme Smith's much-acclaimed 154 not out, which lost the top spot in the Jury Awards by just one vote, was surprisingly low on the readers' list, coming in at No. 5. In the Test Bowling category, the performance that came in second in the jury's ranking, Ryan Sidebottom's 7 for 47 against New Zealand, managed only a lowly 5% of the readers' votes, coming in at No. 6. Similarly, Stuart Broad's 5 for 23 against South Africa only came in in sixth place on the readers' list for ODI Bowling, as against second on the jury's.

Readers were invited to vote on the shortlists online on Cricinfo and nearly 10,000 of them took the opportunity to do so.

Test batting
Sachin Tendulkar 103 v England, Chennai | Virender Sehwag 201 v Sri Lanka, Galle | JP Duminy 166 v Australia, Melbourne | Virender Sehwag 83 v England, Chennai | Graeme Smith 154 not out v England, Edgbaston

Test bowling
Dale Steyn 5 for 57 v Australia, Melbourne | Ajantha Mendis 4 for 72 v India, Colombo | Shakib Al Hasan 7 for 36 v New Zealand, Chittagong | Harbhajan Singh 6 for 102 v Sri Lanka, Galle | Dale Steyn 6 for 72 v West Indies, Durban

ODI batting
Sachin Tendulkar 117 not out v Australia, CB Series final, Sydney | Yuvraj Singh 138 not out v England, Rajkot | Sanath Jayasuriya 125 v India, Asia Cup final, Karachi | Shakib Al Hasan 108 v Pakistan, Multan | Salman Butt 129 retd hurt v India, Kitply Cup final, Mirpur

ODI bowling
Ajantha Mendis 6 for 13 v India, Asia Cup final, Karachi | Ishant Sharma 4 for 38 v Australia, Melbourne | Praveen Kumar 4 for 46 v Australia, CB Series final, Brisbane | Mashrafe Mortaza 4 for 44 v New Zealand, Mirpur | Zaheer Khan 4 for 21 v Sri Lanka, Dambulla