AWESOME
TENDULKAR TOWERS
IN
MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES
Supersport
Park, Centurion, 1 March 2003
So
often has Sachin Tendulkar pounded the bowlers into submission, and dominated
top-class attacks to win matches off his own explosive bat. But has there been
something like this? Consider the scene. It is a high-voltage match in the
World Cup, no less, against arch-rivals Pakistan, who desperately need a win in
order to qualify for the next stage. And the target is 274. This is not for the
faint-hearted, or for those with ordinary ability. But then, it is really just
the sort of challenge that the greats of sport revel in. Tendulkar once again
rose to the occasion, stamping his pedigree on cricket’s big show of 2003.
He said he came
out to bat with a blank mind. He also stated that the moment he stroked Wasim
Akram through the covers right off the sweet spot, he knew it was going to be
his day. It took just three deliveries for the genius to realise what a beauty
of a wicket it was and that his own Midas touch was intact enough to enable him
essay yet another glittering innings. His partner Virender Sehwag too dared to
square-cut the last ball of that opening over off the front foot for another
four.
The pacy Shoaib
Akhtar came on at the other end and promptly hurled a wide down the leg-side.
The fourth ball was fast and short outside the off-stump, and Tendulkar got
under it. His furious slash and the speed of the ball sent it sailing into the
stands at backward point. The incensed, though seemingly chastened, speedster
pitched the next one up but the direction was just a bit awry on the other
side, and the little blaster whipped it to the square-leg boundary. The last
delivery looked a good one but Tendulkar, now master of the situation, drove it
past mid-on for another four. He had established ascendancy in a matter of two
overs. Akhtar was taken off after one over that cost 18 runs. The stands were
abuzz. This was indeed going to be electric.
The fifty came up
in five overs. Waqar Younis dismissed Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly at 53 off
successive deliveries. Tendulkar was in a different zone, zooming to his own
fifty in 37 balls. He treated every bowler with disdain, flicking Waqar,
executing a sweetly timed straight drive off Abdul Razzaq, and crafting a
skillful on-drive to Shahid Afridi’s leg-spin, to recount a few of his dozen
exquisite boundaries. His only real blemish was when he drove a bit early and
Razzaq grassed the ball at mid-off.
Mohammad Kaif helped add 102. Tendulkar got
cramps but refused a runner till he was almost immobile. “Only I know how hard
I have hit the ball and where it will go. A runner cannot anticipate this,” he
explained. A man with immense faith in his own prowess would not risk someone
ruin his precious innings. Now hobbling, he fended at a vicious Akhtar bouncer
and was caught on the off-side for 98. He had faced just 75 deliveries and hit
12 fours and a six. India were already 177 in the 28th over, with
the bowling decimated. Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ushered in an easy win.
Writing in The Times of India, Wasim Akram saluted the maestro: “He has a great
eye, but on this pitch, he seemed to have all the time in the world to select
the right shot and play it to perfection…..he showed that he is capable of
unforgettable strokeplay, which makes him the larger-than-life figure he is.”
It was another page in the saga of Sachin Tendulkar.
(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted
on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).
The
Big Book of World Cup Cricket 1975-2011
ISBN
978-81-901668-4-3
Distributed
in India by Variety Book Depot, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Phones + 91 11
23417175, 23412567
Available
in leading bookshops, and online on several websites.
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