S P O R T S

Perfect, well almost
Mumbai, November 15
When Shikhar Dhawan fell yesterday, to be shortly followed by Murali Vijay, Ajit Tendulkar turned to a friend sitting next to him in a hospitality box at the stadium and asked: “Why are they celebrating the dismissal of the Indian batsmen?” The reason was, of course, that they wanted the India No. 4 to come to bat as soon as possible.

Sachin moments
Tendulkar junior performs as ball boy in dad's farewell Test
Twenty six years after Sachin Tendulkar performed as a ball boy at the Wankhede Stadium, his son Arjun was seen on the ground doing the same duty in the legendary batsman's farewell Test. Arjun (14), who was part of Mumbai's under-14 squad last year, was on the ground when the cricket legend was batting in his landmark 200th Test.

Windies all set to gift-wrap Test to Sachin
Mumbai, November 15
For the majority of the watchers at the Wankhede Stadium today, the day’s action was over at 10.38 in the morning, when Sachin Tendulkar was out after, surely, playing his final innings for India. Yet, the rest of the day managed to compress a vast amount of incidents and drama.

Perfect, well almost
Sachin signs off with a masterful 74, a knock befitting his class
Rohit Mahajan/TNS

In what all probability is his last knock, Sachin seemed to be enjoying himself, free of all expectations and pressure. No wonder, most of his strokes were as good as they had been in his prime. — PTI

Mumbai, November 15
When Shikhar Dhawan fell yesterday, to be shortly followed by Murali Vijay, Ajit Tendulkar turned to a friend sitting next to him in a hospitality box at the stadium and asked: “Why are they celebrating the dismissal of the Indian batsmen?” The reason was, of course, that they wanted the India No. 4 to come to bat as soon as possible.

It seems inconceivable, but it’s possible that Ajit Tendulkar really didn’t know the reason Indian spectators wanted Indian batsmen out. He hadn’t been at a cricket ground in India since 1993, and the nature of the game and the spectator has changed in this time. Ajit gets so nervous when Sachin goes to bat that he goes away from the TV, for a drive perhaps, but the fear of the unknown dogs his steps. Yet, this torment is lesser than the torment of being at the ground or in front of the TV.

Ajit Tendulkar endured the torment yesterday and today, as did their mother Rajni, wife Anjali and children Arjun and Sara. Tendulkar is a significant part of a passionate cricket fan’s life; imagine what he signifies to his brother, mother, wife and children.

The faces of all of them were a picture of distress today each time Tendulkar seemed on shaky ground. They seemed grief-stricken, shocked when Tendulkar was dismissed. They got to know the nervousness the Tendulkar fan lives through at the ground; it’s just that for them, the shock and sadness was magnified by ties of blood and the magnitude of the occasion.

Noise is the enemy of concentration of the batsmen; bowlers feed on it. Batsmen need stillness when they face the ball; they need the blood to flow smoothly in their veins. The bowlers, bounding with energy, need to pump up the heart. The fans don’t care. They don’t care if Shikhar Dhawan or Vijay or Rohit Sharma or all of them are bowled out for a duck and India lose. They want to see Tendulkar score runs.

They must shout “Sachin, Sachiiin” for the duration of his innings. And before, and after. They don’t know that they’re making things difficult for him.

Tendulkar, though, was a changed man yesterday and today. He performed a miracle. He escalated the pressure by announcing his decision to retire last month; he lived through it for a month, soaked it up and threw it away. He performed the impossible task of intensifying the pressure, then quietly slipping from its grasp.

Incredible.

He’s been calmness personified over the last few days.

After returning to the dressing room after his final dismissal today, Tendulkar wasn’t angry or mournful. Seen through binoculars from the other end, he seemed to be discussing his dismissal, but without being agitated or angry. He seemed relieved — he’d stamped his class on a Test match for the final time, playing with this freedom for the first time in three years.

After living in a pressure cooker all his life, he managed to escape it in his final Test innings. “Perhaps there was that little fear in him, in spite of him being one of the greatest batsmen ever… He didn’t want to get out in the fashion that he did in the Champions League or the international matches before this,” Sanjay Manjrekar noted later. “This is the Tendulkar we’ve not seen bat so well for a long time. This is the innings that will tell the fan that his international game is intact. This innings was international standard.”

Cheteshwar Pujara, who batted with Tendulkar for 144 runs and 34 overs, was surprised by Tendulkar’s calmness. “It is not easy to stay calm when you are playing your last game,” Pujara said. “There was a lot of expectation from him since he was playing in Mumbai and it was his last Test match. But the way he batted is incredible and only he can do it.”

Pujara himself was finding it difficult to deal with the deafening noise. “Initially it was very difficult for me to concentrate because there was a lot of noise from the crowd and I was just coming and I didn’t face any balls,” Pujara added. “He faced the first ball before me because Vijay got out. It was really difficult initially because there was a lot of noise and he told me to just stay focussed. Once I played a few balls it was easy for me to bat.”

“He was also guiding me through whenever I was losing my concentration. He would come to me and tell me that ‘now you have to focus a little bit more’,” Pujara said. “I had made my debut with him and I had a partnership with him. It is really a good feeling for me.”

Sachin Tendulkar ended up with a good feeling today. Ajit Tendulkar, too, and also Rajni, Anjali, Arjun, Sara and the capacity crowd and the millions watching on TV… Because the departing genius, following a script written by the gods, played his part almost perfectly.

Sachin moments
Tendulkar junior performs as ball boy in dad's farewell Test

Twenty six years after Sachin Tendulkar performed as a ball boy at the Wankhede Stadium, his son Arjun was seen on the ground doing the same duty in the legendary batsman's farewell Test. Arjun (14), who was part of Mumbai's under-14 squad last year, was on the ground when the cricket legend was batting in his landmark 200th Test. Interestingly, Tendulkar had performed the job of a ball boy at the age of 14 during the India versus Zimbabwe match during the 1987 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkar's farewell Test attracted a number of celebrities to the stadium, who wanted to have one last glimpse at the Master Blaster's batting. Ace tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi, and Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia D'Souza were present. Even Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was also present

Australian musician makes fans sway to Tendulkar tunes Down Under

Anjali Tendulkar reacts after Sachin’s dismissal

After Bollywood singer Kailash Kher paid a musical tribute to Sachin, an Australian musician has now recorded a song in honour of the retiring legend. Sydney-based author, journalist and singer Phil Dye has teamed up with Australia's famous India cricket supporters' group, The Swamy Army, to release 'Sachin Tendulkar — God of Cricket' in honour of the Indian batsman. Featuring catchy lines such as "First at Old Trafford, then onto Sydney, then to the WACA, he's played them all," it might not win an ARIA award for songwriting but it's already struck a chord with cricket fans. The anthem has attracted almost 10,000 likes on Facebook, and has been downloaded by fans from Sydney to Mumbai. "Phil first wrote the song a while back and we gave advice about Sachin's history. The anthem is now on hundreds of Indian fan sites and been on countless Indian radio stations." Kailash Kher had come up with a song called 'Sachin Anthem' to pay his tribute.

Time magazine's 'Person of the Moment'

Accolades continued to pour in for the retiring Sachin Tendulkar with the 'Time' magazine naming the legendary Indian batsman its "Person of the Moment" while as he plays his last Test in Mumbai. "The world's greatest cricketer plays his last match...much to the disappointment of throngs of adoring fans," the magazine said of the 40-year-old. "India's top cricket player, Sachin Tendulkar, is regarded one of the greatest batsman of all time. The only player to score 100 international centuries, Tendulkar leaves the sport as the greatest player of his generation," 'Time' said. — PTI

Windies all set to gift-wrap Test to Sachin
Rohit Mahajan/TNS

Rohit (in pic) and Pujara struck hundreds, indicating Indian cricket is in good hands after Sachin. — PTI

Mumbai, November 15
For the majority of the watchers at the Wankhede Stadium today, the day’s action was over at 10.38 in the morning, when Sachin Tendulkar was out after, surely, playing his final innings for India. Yet, the rest of the day managed to compress a vast amount of incidents and drama.

Cheteshwar Pujara, a man made invisible by the giant shadow of Tendulkar for most of his innings, made his fifth Test century; Virat Kohli cracked a typically flamboyant 57 off 78 balls; Rohit Sharma made his second century in his second Test innings. When the ninth wicket fell, Rohit was on 46. It was the second miracle of the day that he managed to reach three figures after that, adding 80 runs for the last wicket with the brave Mohammed Shami.

The first miracle was the final goodbye for Tendulkar the batsman.

Tendulkar was the centre of the crowd’s adoring, voracious gaze right from 9.30, when he came in to resume his innings; he repeated the last evening’s ritual of picking a flake of dust off the pitch and touching it to his head and heart, in a sign of veneration. He played with last evening’s assurance and conviction.

He was relaxed, even in the midst of a battle with Tino Best, the fast bowler. When Best appealed shrilly and persistently against him for a caught-behind decision, Tendulkar threw back his head with a dismissive expression on his face, as if to say: ‘You can’t be serious with this appeal”. When Best taunted him, glaring at him and motioning at the master to attempt the nudge above the slip, Tendulkar merely smiled. At one point, he walked towards Best and, with the back of his gloved hand, punched him lightly on the shoulder, as if to say that it’s just a game.

Tendulkar played all his life with the greatest intensity, the gravity of a musical classicist; today, walking away from the sport, he knew that it was, after all, just sport.

Tendulkar was the master when he played in front of the wicket; when he emerged as a teen wonder, his game was essentially built around strokes in front of the wicket. Today only three of his 12 boundaries were hit behind square, one on the off side, two on the leg. He hit the perfect straight drive, the perfect push-punch through the covers.

When he presented the full face of the bat to the ball, he seemed undefeatable, both in offence and defence. That’s his original game.

When he tried to nudge or ramp up the ball, he seemed shaky. That’s the game he developed later in his career, to reduce risks and get easy runs, and after having suffered serious injuries.

It’s a twist of fate that his original full bat-face game made him seem impregnable, his nudging and pushing got him in trouble.

Darren Sammy, the West Indian captain, had caught Tendulkar on 94 in Mumbai two years ago, on November 25. That was a tough catch at second slip, that prolonged Tendulkar’s wait of his 100th international century. Today Sammy caught him at first slip when Tendulkar attempted to run the ball through to third man. The ball came to Sammy’s face with speed and force, he was knocked down but didn’t let it go.

Tendulkar inspected the disaster, looked at the pitch and started the walk back to the pavilion as a deathly silence descended upon the ground.

The score then was 221/3, India were 39 ahead and seemed set for a massive lead. He reached close to the boundary; it then occurred to the master that, due to the feebleness of the West Indians, he’d probably never bat again. Just a few metres short of the rope, he raised his bat, turned around and acknowledged the cheers, soaked in the adoration flowing from the stands.

Then he was gone. The thought that cricket is futile then struck thousands of spectators — the stadium began to empty.

But it didn’t empty, some 70 percent of the spectators stayed. The day was long still.

Kohli smacked the first ball he faced for a four through extra cover.

That set the pattern for the rest of the day. India’s younger batting masters took over from the Grandmaster.

Kohli flogged the toothless bowling, getting a 57 before being beaten in defence by Shane Shillingford, caught by Sammy. Pujara got 113 before being caught by Shillingford off his own bowling. Ravichandran Ashwin hit a quick 30 before India lost three wickets for six runs, to go from 409/6 to 415/9.

Then Shami joined Rohit and stonewalled while Rohit farmed the strike, refused several singles, hitting the occasional four or six to reach his 100.

The stage was set for another West Indian collapse. Three of their batsmen obliged. They’re 43/3 overnight, another three-day defeat beckons.