Cricket Shastra

Sachin Tendulkar, as he has done a zillion times already in his career, proved once again that god does exist – in Him.

What we saw at Adelaide Oval was no mean achievement. Here was a guy – under pressure from the selectors, considering others younger than him were being dumped from the One Day Squad like heavy vessels from a sinking ship. And yet, he walked off at the end of the day with his head held high, having just reached a personal milestone – A Century at Don’s home ground. There will still be doubters, those who think that he is a burden to the cricket team and those who think that it’s only his stature that saves him from being dumped. But the present lot of selectors have shown scant regard for reputations, and quite rightly so. It would have been oh-so-easy for him to intimidate any bowler on earth,

make a stroke filled 50 and then depart having done enough to secure himself a berth for the next tour. But here is a man, who is now ready to take his rightful place amongst the cricketing greats, not just by bulldozing the opponents, but by grinding them to the ground. He had shown the temperament to stay in the middle in England where people said that he was too slow and he had shown the will to dominate the bowlers in Sydney and Melbourne. In Adelaide, it was more of a measured response to a tricky situation. At the moment when Sachin’s partnership with Laxman started, India were evenly poised. They had two recognized batsmen at the crease, but a wicket then could change things very quickly. It was even more important that these two stuck around, because in Perth, Indians had shown tendency to go back to the pavilion in pairs.

Laxman is no doubt the go-to man whenever India is in trouble. He is one man who has literally fished India out of trouble a zillion of times, but a lot of his efforts have been lost in the effervescence of those who could hit the ball over the boundary 6 times in an over. And make no mistake, Laxman is no Wall .. he isn’t the person who would block incessantly. He makes his presence felt through timely, silken strokes on the leg side but it is his off drives that don’t get the same attention they should. I am sure his off drives would feel like a neglected child in the presence of his leg side play, but the fact is .. that on the whole, Laxman offers the variety and stability in the lower middle order that most teams in the world would kill for.
But, lets not deviate our attention from the man of the moment. Laxman’s day would come, but its not this day .. the day belonged to Sachin Tendulkar.
I read here that Bradman had once said of his innings of 254 was his best because every shot went exactly where he wanted it to. Sachin echoed the same words and to do that against supposedly the best bowling attack in the world in their home ground must be something really really special, so what even if he is the best batsman in the world.
A Second innings failure at Adelaide would again see the doubters and critics emerging, like the worms come out in rainy seasons. But I still believe in what I see and when I see Sachin, I sense a calmness about his batting that says that in spite of all odds .. I will fight on. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that the day Sachin chooses to retire, he will leave a huge void in Indian Cricket, one that will take a couple of generations to fill. People will come in and play the one day innings in the same slam-dunk style, that fans and admirers will look and admire and say “This is what Sachin played like”. There will be others who will be compared to him, and yet .. in spite of all these comparisons .. no one will reach close to the amount of faith and respect this one man has generated in Indian Cricket .. no one man will inspire more people to take up Cricket like Sachin has and most definitely no one man will stand up the same way for India and say “I am not done yet”.
Lets take our hats off and Bow .. To the new Don.