it was Chennai and it was Tendulkar, in that fateful test match in 1999 vs Pakistan, that gave voice to the hushed murmurs of "he is not a match winner". This should put to rest once and for all the thoughts of the doubting Thomases. There is nothing more the man needs to prove.
However, two men do. One, in the midst of a terrible and inexplicable slump of form. The other, having made strong starting claims to cement his place in the team.
The second test in Mohali will be a true test for 13 men, the two gentlemen above and the 11 KP chooses to step out onto the PCA grounds. Rest assured, we will be there to follow the proceedings.
On a day when talks of a jinx plaguing the EPL top 4 abound, Indian cricket has undone its Jinx with Chennai.
Ah, i so love Test Cricket !
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- yppah
- I believe in plagiarism. All my academic efforts were directed towards the effective usage of search engines. I intend to continue on the blog much the same way, albeit because i have been forced to follow most of the action offline. All comments/opinions expressed here are strictly personal and any resemblance to anyone dead or livingis a matter of great shame, any hurt caused is purely intentional. Microsoft has promised to come up with a shortcut of the "cntrl + c" - "ALT-TAB" - "cntrl + v" - "ALT-TAB".
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From a friend and constant fellow contributor -
98.3 Swann to Tendulkar, FOUR, there it is! What. An. Effort. That is a historic win and Tendulkar's 41st Test century, paddles around the corner ever so emphatically and India have clinched a superb run chase by six wickets
Tendulkar pumps his arms and Yuvraj embraces him in a massive bear hug. Chennai rises and what a win. A great Test match in fact, from start to finish. This will mean so, so much to Tendulkar and India.
Really stunning scenes in Chennai. Tendulkar scores a most brilliant hundred and India India have achieved their target of 387, which is now the fourth-highest run-chase in Tests.
This takes me back to the India Pakistan test match at Chennai almost ten years ago. I remember every ball of that series because I had my semester break during my engineering studies then. It was the morning of 31 Jan 1999, when India resumed their innings at 40/2 chasing a tricky total of 271 to win the test.
On that Sunday morning, 40/2 became 82/5 in less than two hours. Time was in plenty but there was only Mongia and the tail to support Tendulkar. For an hour, the post lunch session was a dour session as Tendulkar and Mongia blocked out ball after ball from the ever-testing Saqlain Mushtaq. There were maiden overs after another.
I remember each and every ball as it was played out doggedly by the Indian duo. And we managed to survive without any further casualties till tea. Only 59 runs were scored in 30 overs. But the intensity in this battle was visible every time a ball was bowled. This was a contest of ability, confidence, patience and determination between two determined batsmen and a penetrative Pakistan bowling attack consisting of the dangerous Akram and the vicious Saqlain Mushtaq backed up by Waqar Younis.
When tea was taken, India was 145/5, needing another 126 runs to win. There was one more day to go in the match, but what followed after tea looked ominous. And ominous it looked for both the teams. The way Tendulkar started batting after tea made it clear that he was out to score those 126 runs in the last session of the 4th day itself.
Tendulkar switched gears as he played against the line to loft the ball over midwicket-square leg region, punched some excellent straight drives, and when the slightest width was offered he cut the ball hard. The 11 overs after tea saw India scoring 63 runs as boundaries flowed freely from Tendulkar's bat. Mongia too upped the ante as he grew in confidence in the company with Tendulkar.
At 218/5 with over an hour to go for the fourth day to finish, India look all set to wrap up the match on the penultimate day itself. But then tragedy struck...Mongia who had just completed a determined fifty took on Akram and trying an adventurous shot ended up lofting the ball high in the air, and got out. A partnership of 136 spanning over three hours was broken, and it opened the gateway for Pakistan. A thriller was on the cards now...
Tendulkar who by now was grappling with intense back spasms however continued thrashing the Pakistan bowlers and in less than 6 overs had a partnership of 37 runs with Sunil Joshi. The only person standing between victory and defeat for Pakistan, was Tendulkar, and they were determined to get him out.
Ball no. 5 of the 92nd over, India at 255/6, needing another 17 runs to win: Tendulkar tried to loft the ball with the spin, but Saqlain Mushtaq had delivered a well concealed "wrong one" that held its line instead of spinning into the batsman. The ball took the leading edge and the ball ballooned to Akram who took it gleefully. That was the breakthrough which Pakistan was waiting for since the whole day, and this was the thing that India was dreading the most. The whole Pakistani team erupted in delirious celebrations as Tendulkar trudged back slowly and painfully to the pavilion.
With 17 runs left, and the likes of Kumble and Srinath to come, India could have still made it but the dismissal of Tendulkar had clearly broken the resolve of the Indian team. Wrapping up the remaining three wickets was a mere formality for the Pakistan team. In the hindsight I feel that even if India had required two runs to win with three wickets in hand, still they would have lost the match. Such was the impact of Tendulkar's dismissal, not only statistically but psycologically.
Some of the wounds got healed when Anil Kumble took 10 wickets in a single innings in the next match and India trounced Pakistan by a huge margin.
But somewhere inside Tendulkar's heart, the wound had got etched. A less than intelligent media and mindless critics kept on fueling the fire that his worth in the fourth innings of a test is nothing. Despite a single person not being responsible for victory or defeat in the game of cricket, such are the expectations from Tendulkar that anything he does, no matter howsover significant it maybe, there are always more expectations from him.
Yesterday evening, Sehwag gave India an out-of-the-world start and laid the platform for a grand finale. Today, as India resumed batting on the fifth day at Chennai, I had an eerie sense of deja vu. When Laxman fell and as India wobbled at 224/4 with the inconsistent Yuvraj to follow, I could only get flashes of that 1999 Chennai test, but 2008 turned out to be different. Not only was Tendulkar more determined – he eschewed any rash shot and played cautiously but positively – but he also received solid support from Yuvraj.
In the end, it was a poetic justice that the winning shot came from Tendulkar in the form of a boundary, and that too when an off-spinner was bowling. I did not see today's play live, but while following the live scorecard, as India were building their chase towards victory I got that feeling of deja vu. A similar situation had indeed developed – Chennai, a stiff fourth innings target, Tendulkar battling and an offspinner trying to fox him into playing a wrong shot, but that was then, and this is now...
Dhananjay Aradhye
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