When Sachin Tendulkar impressed the fans more than the statisticians
It was a movie that was cut short because the hero departed before killing the villain. The hero here was none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, while it was a set of 11 villains hovering over him in the ring at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday. Tendulkar walked in to the usual rousing reception in the second session of the day’s play. An upper cut for six over third-man off Peter Siddle right after the tea break was the shot that would have got the crowd on its feet.
Tendulkar was in for a big hit in the middle. He mixed power with panache, and looked at ease —cutting, defending and caressing the cherry to all parts of the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Day 2 of the India-Australia Test series.
A wristy shot, yet another upper cut and a scorching cover drive towards cover boundary ensured that Sachin turned the heat on the Australian side, muck akin to the sun that was warming the massive stadium. But the shot of the day from the Little Master was to arrive a few overs later.
Sachin hit a slightly over pitched delivery by Ben Hilfenhaus over the on-side fence. It wasn’t a bad delivery firstly. Just that Sachin had enough time to get into a position to give the ball the required direction, bisecting the fieldsmen in mid-on and mid-off whilst the ball raced away. It was a shot that would have made the dressing room stand on it feet and applaud. It was vintage stuff from Sachin Tendulkar. The show was on.
The Master was in a relentless mood, and never once flinched even when he played and missed a few. Bad balls punished, good balls treated on merit—Sachin appeared to be a man on a mission. More than those crisp shots that Tendulkar employed, it was those defence shots that was straight out a coaching manual for thousands who had come to watch at the MCG, and millions catching the action on television.
He brought out all shots in his armoury as Tendulkar raced to his fifty in just 55 deliveries.
But the crowd wanted more, much more. Tendulkar was beginning to excite the crowd before being cleaned up by Peter Siddle in the last over of the day for a fluent 73 off 98 balls. For the statisticians, Sachin is still on 99 international hundreds, but for the common fan like me–it was entertainment at the highest level. It need not always be a century; even a masterful innings is enough to keep the fan engaged.
One must not forget, Tendulkar got a beauty of a ball to be left dejected.
In the last over before tea and the first full over Sachin faced after the one delivery from Pattinton before that, he almost edged it on to silly mid-on.
It was an attempt to play off his pads, but the Master was convincingly beaten for pace and late swing and that was unusual and unorthodox Tendulkar.
We all thought he wouldn’t last long, but, did he? Oh boy, in pure style!
- nice one Prasad
More than the runs Sachin scored, I liked the approach which he employed in the middle. To me that’s more important!