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silly point the emotion of the final day of sachin tendulkar s career captured here by rohit brijnath from the straits times today was too much even for him today on his last cricketing day at wankhede stadium in mumbai even he the impassive man left the field forever with a stump in one hand and a tear wiped with the other he was not alone for this day for those in the stadium and beyond resembled an emotional mass sport has rarely seen the like of it today sachin tendulkar who spent a life he said over 20 metres the length of a cricket pitch for 24 years was retired his white clothes to be packed his bats to be mothballed his competitive instinct to be buried a long story even if it went on longer than it might have has concluded there is for view original post 900 more words share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket 15th nov 1989 16th nov 2013 november 16 2013 tags sachin share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket reminiscing sachin november 4 2013 tags allan border australia england imran khan india kris srikkanth mohammed azharuddin pakistan ravi shastri sachin tendulkar sanjay manjrekar sunil gavaskar we didn t have a television when he played his 1989 debut series in pakistan scores suggest none of the matches came close to a result with 28 being the highest number of wickets falling in the 1st test match of the series going by the high strung emotion i remember experiencing in the odi contests of the mid 90 s one can imagine the pressure both teams must have played under in india pakistan cricket matches the fact that imran was unhappy with the drawn series while srikkanth was delighted probably points to the superiority of the pakistan test team for india the series belonged to s manjrekar with 569 runs at an astounding average of 95 with a double hundred 1 hundred and 3 fifties making his debut at 16 years 205 days and batting at 6 tendulkar had a modest beginning with 215 runs in his debut series at an average of 36 with 2 fifties although i have no memory of it apparently the folks watched on our black white dyanora tv when he became the 2nd youngest by 30 days at 17 years 112 days to score a century at old trafford this time the batsman for india in the series was m azharuddin with 426 runs at 85 2 2 big hundreds and 1 fifty until the innings in manchester mentions of his name were more to do with his young age than his batting manjrekar azharuddin and vengsarkar getting more of the mention so much so that he was given the role of third seamer after india were thrashed at lords the buildup to the 1991 92 tour of australia was when his aggressive shot making was mentioned for the first time the overarching theme was as usual that of indians as poor travellers who were unlikely to challenge border s australians as he became the most capped test match player the century at old trafford had got people s attention and he had gone from being a young batsman to gavaskar s successor in the matter of one season and he delivered this was the first time he was india s most successful batsman in a series with 368 runs at an average of 46 that included that innings at perth to go with the 148 at sydney by the time the 1991 92 australia series ended the words prized wicket were ascribed to him for the first time a tag that the most dominant team of the generation kept in place for the best part of the next two decades concurrent to the test series he d started rolling them off in the odis as well one of his fifties taking india to the benson hedges world series final he scored 7 other half centuries between the benson hedges world series and the world cup combined on the 91 92 tour of australia for an aggregate of 684 runs at an average of 46 nearly 15 runs an innings more than the rest of the batsmen the 91 92 tour of australia was when he went from reasonably known prospect to flag bearer for a country s self esteem it was as simple and abrupt as that since that tour i cannot recall a match odi or test where he didn t carry the brunt of expectation probably greater than that of the other playing 10 put together interestingly it took until the 1994 new zealand tour for the world to get a taste of his explosive batting in odis at the top of the order filling in for an injured sidhu at the top of the order chasing 143 to win sachin scored 82 in 42 balls and the rest as they say is tendulkar from there the aura surrounding him only grew brighter as an inconsistent team was guaranteed at least a few strokes of brilliance pun intended no matter what the conditions or quality of opposition in our eyes the cricket hungry indian viewers he became superman and mr dependable rolled into one impregnable in defense destructive in attack rock solid yet entertaining that s what we expected from tendulkar every innings all across india from the mid 90s to the early 2000 s the routine was identical people hurrying home from schools colleges and workplaces bursting into their homes to breathlessly scan the upper right of their television screens searching for that all important number to the right of the if it read anything but 0 there would be a frantic visual search on the television screen for the familiar short statured wide legged stance at the striker s end or the hand on hip body weight resting on bat handle at the non striker s end if found it didn t matter if it was 14 3 a long slow relieved breath would be expelled as the customary set of commercials faded into the live picture filling the room with the buzz of the crowd replaced by absolute stillness as the bowler ran in then a sharp intake as a delivery passed him perilously close to the bat s edge the sharpest intakes were reserved for when the ball swung in to thud into the lightweight polyurethane pads and the bowlers and fielders went up in appeal if ardent prayers to various gods were to show up as server traffic on some divine network management dashboard the biggest spikes would coincide with every appeal against sachin tendulkar even my mother a person incapable of thinking a negative thought about any person in the wide world would darkly comment on nefarious intentions of the fielding team that was unfairly putting pressure on the umpire with their loud appeals then a delivery would stray down middle or leg ever so slightly the trademark right glove turning over left on the bat handle not so much hitting as just redirecting the ball to the square leg boundary crowds those at the ground those at home erupt camera closes on tendulkar haring back for the second run slowing down to watch the ball cross the boundary rope the quick nod of the helmeted head with the miniature tri colour pasted on it as he surveys the field before going through the most recognizable set of movements in world cricket before taking guard again if there existed an implicit measure of gross national hopefulness for india it was highest in those moments when sachin was at the crease looking in solid touch with a couple of imperious boundaries behind him the crowd surging in anticipation seeking to be reassured by the resounding crack of his mrf adorned blade the difficulty of the task ahead was irrelevant the quality of the opposition s bowlers was irrelevant for the 3rd most populous country in the world every sachin innings was like watching a big budget hollywood production of a marvel comics superhero he had to prevail top class quick bowlers wrist spinners ball not coming on wickets going down in a heap at the other end it did not matter the script said he would prevail he did many a time except when he didn t and then for us it was like a stoner coming off his high until the next match and the next fix he did a darn good job of delivering in hindsight so good that he got taken for granted when numbers 1 and 2 were expected to not last longer than the first 30 minutes and didn t make it past 10 tendulkar had to stand firm we would laud the lesser men with the same job description as him just for getting into double figures while anything short of complete domination by india s talisman was failure as the bar dropped on those he shared the dressing room with we kept raising it for him we were crushed when he didn t surpass our ridiculous expectations aggrieved at being let down then reinforcements started arriving first in support roles his batting seemed to get a 2nd wind as he played with the free stroking abandon of his early days then the mantle seemed to shift as the indian team finally came of age winning overseas with little contribution from the mrf blade of course it took mammoth team efforts just like was always required in a team sport but the training wheels were finally off and with it the fervent dependence of the indian cricket fan on sachin tendulkar and as the likes of sehwag and kohli laid into attacks it became acceptable to do the unthinkable to call out a tendulkar dismissal for poor footwork for cricket writers to even none too subtly call for sachin to hang it up rather than defend or counter any of the several and growing number of arguments rather than being ungracious enough to actually pretend to understand what goes through a champion s head rather than to think i can differentiate between a few misjudged deliveries and slowing reflexes rather than venture an opinion on when he should quit for every square drive played at the top of the bounce for every imperious punch down the ground for every dance down the track sending the ball over long on for every skipped heartbeat sharp intake of breath rapturous delight and for even for every heartbreak the line that for me will capture the essence of tendulkar s batting now and always that byline on that print ad i saw all those years ago in a sports store when sachin bats all else is irrelevant image copyright getty images share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading 6 comments from cricket one day test cricket my tendulkar experience november 3 2013 i like writing my tendulkar posts on days when he doesn t score too many that s when there is a lull in the torrent of posts about him this one is about the one time i experienced a tendulkar innings from about 100 yards from the action sure i d like to have been at perth on his maiden tour of australia but the only time i decided to brave the inhospitable conditions of watching a live match in india was to watch him the occasion the first test match of the south africa series in february 2000 at the wankhede in mumbai when a friend unexpectedly got passes the decision to forgo a day of academic enlightenment to watch a test match was an easy one to make the trip from the northern reaches of the city to the stadium was an unexpectedly long one and match was underway as we reached scrambling to locate the right gate for entry we noticed the lack of crowd noise having learnt that we were batting we feared the worst those were still the days when the indian batting was prone to abject collapses against pace bowling and the first day of a series against an attack comprising allan donald shaun pollock jacques kallis and lance klusener was a disaster waiting to happen from an indian spectator s perspective having entered the seating areas we heaved a sigh of relief after a bit of rubber necking told us that the indians had lost just the one wicket in the pre sehwag gambhir era our openers didn t really count so it was ok dravid and laxman were at the crease and keeping things largely unexciting by leaving as many as they could with my first and only experience of a live game i was amazed by a couple of things from our position at a wide long the keeper and slips stood to allan donald almost 70 of the way to the boundary and it was loud or so i thought then the general noise levels stopped in their tracks when white lightning snuck one through the defence of the wall and clattered the off stump from the time the off stump was disturbed as dravid started walking back to the pavilion amidst the whooping celebrations of the springboks it was like the 45 000 strong crowd had been frozen in its tracks as dravid reached no mans land beyond mid off but not quite long off there was a smattering of applause and then it began it sounded a low rumble like a bunch of super bees had descended on the stadium then a definite rhythm was audible in the rumble the chant grew louder as dravid reached the boundary the volume rising at an exponential rate the whole stadium was in a frenzy and then it happened mumbai s favourite son emerged from the pavilion the molded polyurethane pads the short squat stature the mrf blade the stadium erupted compared to this it had been quiet a moment ago a decibel level i have never experienced as 45 000 pairs of eyes followed him to the crease each pair of lungs seemed to want to outdo the next as if to eradicate any doubt about the cynosure of mass hysteria the chant went saaaachin sachin it was like the people of the city were making their claim known this is mumbai and this is sachin tendulkar the deafening chant followed him to the crease he looked up then took guard just before donald started his run it went quiet again i can t prove it but am fairly sure 45 000 breaths were held the delivery pitched on a good length and was met on the back foot with a straight bat the reassuring thud of bat on ball went around the stadium and all breathed again i was just in awe of an individual who was able to go about his business with a semblance of normalcy in that environment he went on to make a masterful 97 that day complete with drives cuts and pulls his dismissal 3 short of another century might seem like an anti climax but it was as if to round out the performance he had lived up to his expectation just about and was given a loud round of applause mixed with relief india were still behind the eight ball but he d scored runs and so it wasn t so bad it was only on my way home that i became aware of the hoarseness in my throat share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket all else is irrelevant october 30 2013 tags adidas australia border gavaskar cadbury s india sachin tendulkar test cricket there was this commercial that used to appear a few years ago in a world of identical looking promos this one struck a chord i ll explain after laying out the hindi storyboard with its attempted translation scene opens with a crowd quietly standing in front of a huge television screen all kinds of people in the crowd a few with the dabs of paint on ...