It must be strange being Sachin Tendulkar these days withall those calls for his head. All those learned people claiming he is past and shouldreturn to the pavilion. Has he, well it is difficult to say. This is, we arerepeatedly told is his leanest patch ever. But as the third test matchcommenced and the Indian batsmen felt like spending more time in the pavilionrather than out on the pitch, Tendulkar reminded us what he was capable of.
When Steven Finn came into the attack, he lacked the controlthat is his norm. He erred and Tendulkar got two fours off him. It was aninnings marked with a single here and a single there and yes the odd four.While he tried to create to steady the wicket his team-mates failed to keeppace. The order was collapsing rapidly. Gambhir fell attempting to cut adelivery too close to the stumps. The next big thing in Indian cricket, Kohlicame and went like an overnight traveler at the village inn. He hung his batoutside the off-stump and edged through to the slips. But, Tendulkar stayed.
With the arrival of Yuvraj Singh, the tempo of the inningsbegan to change. The left-hander played and missed a few times but his positiveintent seemed to spark a little life into Tendulkar as well. A four helped him to a 50 the first sinceSydney. His presence was a reminder toIndia that much may have changed in the country but out on the pitch hispresence was a constant.
When the end came it was to a great delivery and a very goodcatch, an out-swinger that snagged a snick. His innings could be described inthese simple numbers. 76 runs off 154 balls. 123 dot balls. 13 fours. With thisinnings, he completed 34,000 runs in international cricket. He achieved themilestone in his 193 Test appearances in his 23-years long career. His was the only note played with a degree offinesse. He was accompanied by his captain Dhoni who stuck around andeventually helped them go over 300. Sadly that score was not really competitiveas Cook’s innings later revealed.
Yuvraj singh may be a great story but he has not and perhapsdoes not have the technical nous required for this level of cricket.
The ego of little master is never mentioned but to performat that level it is vital to have a “developed ego”. It is that ego that pusheshim to score more runs and cross that Rubicon of a hundred hundreds and yeseven play when his eyes or perhaps his body say’s it’s enough.
It is that ego that made him play that innings in Kolkattaand stay out there and churn those runs out. Perhaps it is time the fans getready to watch another version of Tendulkar. Perhaps it is time to just enjoythis ride with him as he enjoys the final chapter of his cricketing life. Thisis a man about whom much will be written when he is gone. He is after all oneof a kind.
Whatever this match result may be, for Tendulkar’s fan,s itwill be one they will look back and say “hmm, he still has it”.
