At Eden, Sachin Tendulkar abandoned his pride

December 6, 2012

Tendulkar

The cheers that accompanied Sachin Tendulkar as he made his way to the middle were deafening as always. But what followed next, had most of them sitting with their fingers crossed for the best part of an hour.


It went like this: 2 dots, 1 run, 12 dots, 1 run, 4 dots, Edged four, 9 dots, 1 run, 4 dots, 1 run, 1 run, 5 dots, 1 run.


He just couldn’t get the ball away. Monty Panesar bowled two maidens at him. Steve Finn hit him on the shoulder. The edge of his bat was more prominent than the middle. But he simply didn’t care; he simply didn’t care about how he looked.

He scratched away — in the middle and at the last shreds of pride.


10 runs off 43 balls. 36 dot balls. 1 four.


And for that period, he didn’t look like a world beater. He didn’t look like someone who had 34,000 runs in international cricket. He looked desperate. He looked human. In fact, for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time, England were trying to get him on strike, that’s how insecure he was looking in the middle. A far cry from the days when the opposition would try and get him off strike in a bid to frustrate him. Keep Sachin away from the strike and sooner or later, his momentum will die.


It was a vision: Sachin in chains. But he manfully strained against them, keeping himself alive, giving himself some breathing space. Some might even call it ugly. It was in a way but it also encapsulated his current battle — against age, form and England.


Rahul Dravid on BBC’s Test Match Special couldn’t hide his admiration: “It’s fascinating to see such a legend willing to fight it out.” One couldn’t help but agree.


Then Steven Finn came into the attack. He has pace and height but not quite the control, not today. He erred and Tendulkar got two fours off him. The buzz of the crowd had long since died, now they spoke in hushed whispers. Nobody wanted to jinx him.


18 runs off 49 balls. 40 dot balls. 3 fours.


The next stage was slightly better. A single here, a single there, the odd two, an edged four in between. The impression one got was of a man just trying to stay afloat — sooner or later, help would arrive; sooner or later, he would come good. His belief shone through: If I stay at the wicket long enough, the runs will come.


26 runs off 64 balls. 50 dot balls. 4 fours.


At the other end, Tendulkar had seen Gambhir fall, when the opener attempted to cut a delivery that was too close to the stumps. Kohli, on the other hand, hung his bat outside the off-stump and edged it through to the slips. But Tendulkar had survived.


28 runs off 78 balls. 62 dot balls. 4 fours.


With the arrival of Yuvraj Singh, the tempo of the innings began to change. The left-hander played and missed a few times but his positive intent seemed to spark a little life into Tendulkar as well. Another edge went for four but then the master opened the face of his bat to guide the ball just back of square for four. Two fours in two balls. The crowd cheered wildly and then fell silent again. Nobody wanted to break his concentration.


36 runs off 84 balls. 66 dot balls. 6 fours.


Now, some confidence seemed to flow into Tendulkar’s stride. He was consciously trying to plant his front foot as far forward as possible. He was trying to do it all right. By the time, tea was called, he was just four short of his fifty.
46 runs off 98 balls. 77 dot balls. 8 fours.


But when Tendulkar came out after tea, he wanted to get on with things. It felt that way. A four off the first ball in the final session gave him his first half-century in almost a year — he got his last fifty in Syndey on January 3. He followed it up with another four off the very next ball.


54 runs off 100 balls. 77 dot balls. 10 fours.


But then again he settled into a dour rhythm. This was especially evident against Monty Panesar (he played out a total of 73 dot balls in his whole innings against the left-arm orthodox bowler).


63 runs off 124 balls. 95 dot balls. 11 fours.


At this point, he was pretty much starting to look like he had settled in for the long haul. The bowlers weren’t really troubling him much. The ball was pretty old as well. Anderson was bowling brilliantly and the odd ball would beat the batsmen but that was it.


69 runs off 149 balls. 117 dot balls. 12 fours.


Then came the end. Immediately after the drinks break, Anderson got one to seam away from the batsman. Tendulkar came forward to drive anyway, edged it and Matt Prior took a brilliant one-handed catch to his right. The innings was over. The crowd exhaled but they still wondered: Was he back?


76 runs off 154 balls. 123 dot balls. 13 fours.
Some might point to the runs and wonder why the question even needs to be asked. Others might point to the fours — especially the shot he hit off Panesar’s flighted delivery which was driven between cover and extra-cover. The timing and placement were class. But the real takeaway from this innings was the 123 dot balls he faced.


The dot balls above all showcased a desire to remain relevant in our cricketing conversations from reasons other than retirement. They showed the resolve to get down and dirty; to do the hard yards and even appear ordinary while trying to do it.


This wasn’t a monumental innings. This wasn’t Chennai in 1999 — where he made 136 despite a stiff back. This wasn’t the Sydney off 2004 — where he decided he wouldn’t play off-side shots. This was Kolkata; this was where Tendulkar abandoned his pride.
And this too must count.



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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: It was on April 2, 2011, when the Men in Blue went on to win their second 50-over World Cup title.

India won its first World Cup in 1983 and then had to wait for 28 years to again lift the title.
Going into the 2011 tournament, India went in as the clear favourites as the competition was to be played in the sub-continent.

Under MS Dhoni's leadership, India lost just one match in the competition against South Africa.
India had defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final to set up a summit clash with Sri Lanka.

In the finals, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored for Sri Lanka as he struck a century to take the team's score to 274/6.

India in their chase got off to a bad start as the side lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag with just 31 runs on the board.

But Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni stepped up and stitched a match-winning 109-run partnership.

Gambhir perished after playing a knock of 97 runs, but in the end, Dhoni and Yuvraj took the team over the line by six wickets.

The winning six struck by Dhoni is still viewed as one of the most exciting moments in India's sporting history. 

As the winning six was hit, Ravi Shastri was doing commentary then, and he famously remarked, "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years".
As soon as the match-winning shot was hit, Tendulkar erupted with joy and had tears to see his dream finally being fulfilled.

Earlier this year, former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the 2011 World Cup win, titled 'Carried On the Shoulders Of A Nation', was voted the greatest Laureus Sporting Moment of the last twenty years.

The lap after the World Cup is still edged into everyone's hearts.

Playing in his last mega 50-over tournament, it was the last chance for Tendulkar to lift the coveted trophy.

Before the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had played five tournaments (1992,1996,1999,2003 and 2007), and he fell short every time.

The closest he came to winning the trophy was in 2003 as India made the finals under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

But the Men in Blue fell short in the finals against Australia.

Then in 2007, the biggest setback was in store for the legend has India bowed out of the tournament in the group stages.

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News Network
March 29,2020

Sydney, Mar 29: Steve Smith's two-year leadership ban ended quietly Sunday, leaving him eligible again to captain Australia at a time of uncertainty over when international cricket will resume.

Smith was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leading Australia for two years over his involvement in the 2018 ball tampering scandal in South Africa. His sentence ended Sunday and he can again captain Australia if called upon.

Australian players were due this week to conclude a series of matches in New Zealand and, for some, to join the Indian Premier League. But it wasn't clear Sunday if the IPL will take place this year and when international matches will resume. Australia's scheduled mid-year tours to England and Bangladesh are in doubt.

Smith told Channel Nine television's Sports Sunday he is doing his best to stay mentally and physically fit, training in his home gym, going on 10 kilometer (6 mile) runs and practising the guitar.

"It's obviously not looking likely (the IPL will go ahead) at the moment," Smith said. "I think there might be some meetings over the next few days to discuss what the go is with it all.

"I'm just trying to stay physically and mentally fit and fresh and, if it goes ahead at some point, then great. And if not, there's plenty going on in the world at the moment. So just play it day by day."

It seems unlikely Smith will return to the captaincy when cricket resumes. Tim Paine is firmly established as Australia's test captain and at 35 is not immediately considering retirement. Aaron Finch has captained Australia successfully in white ball cricket.

The conclusion of Smith's ban ends the period of upheaval in Australian cricket that followed the ball tampering incident in the second test at Cape Town in 2018 when Cameron Bancroft, with the knowledge of Smith and his vice-captain David Warner, used sandpaper to change the condition of the ball.

Smith and Warner received one-year bans from international and most domestic cricket and Bancroft was banned for nine months. The scandal also resulted in the resignation of coach Darren Lehmann and the departure of Cricket Australia's chief executive, James Sutherland.

Warner remains under a career-long leadership ban.

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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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