Mumbai, November 14
For the atheist, cricket was briefly turned into a religious experience today.

Was it from a signal from some invisible enforcer that the two Indian openers, batting masterfully, departed quickly, within two balls in the same over, so that Sachin Tendulkar could walk in to bat at 3.33 PM, a likely number to be cited by a holy man as auspicious?

Was it destined that the ageing Tendulkar, his mother Rajni watching him for the first time from the stands, would succeed today?

We don’t know, but Tendulkar certainly thinks there’s someone, something, somewhere directing his moves; he treats his bats like a living thing, a deity; he keep images of his gods among his kit; today he bent down to the pitch and seemed to be asking for the blessing of the spirit of cricket in this, possibly his last innings in cricket. He’s never done this before.

Was all this significant in determining the day’s events?

Tendulkar believes that; the moment of his arrival at the wicket seemed to touch something deeper than things merely corporeal; cricket at 3.33 today afternoon seemed to become a spiritual experience.

Tendulkar has had a bad time in the middle in the recent past; his feet have seemed locked, his mind restless or numbed. Today he had the clarity of purpose that has been rarely evident since the end of the World Cup in 2011; that was the time when the bogey of the 100 international centuries had got on to his mind. Today he batted freely; he wanted not to be dominated. Tendulkar at his best manipulated the fielders and bowling lines and lengths according to his will. He seemed capable of doing it today.

Shane Shillingford, the man who beat him and got his wicket in Kolkata, was the man with the ball; Tendulkar defended the first two balls he faced from the off-spinner.

The third ball he faced was in Shillingford’s next over. Tendulkar showed his intent. He went down on his knee and swept the ball hard. That was going to be his method today — he’d dictate terms to the bowlers, manipulate them rather than being manipulated by them by remaining tied to the crease in the backward-defensive. The last ball of the over was driven beautifully, inside-out, to extra cover for a single.

Tendulkar hit his first fours in Shillingford’s next over; the off-spinner dropped one short and the master cut it past point; then the bowler pitched one up and Tendulkar drove it down the ground, against the spin, beating the man at mid-off.

Tendulkar was on a song; he then drove Shannon Gabriel to the cover boundary; his first 16 runs had come off 15 balls. The crowd, many in it remaining on their feet for the first quarter hour of his innings, was going berserk.

Tendulkar was in control; only days ago, it seemed unlikely that such a sentence could be written of his final Test innings. But there was something in the air, something in the day that had changed Tendulkar.

The opposition, it has to be said, was not particularly challenging, but the pitch was, offering bounce and movement off the seam for the pacers, bounce and turn to the spinners.

Tendulkar’s decisiveness was the difference. His defence was rock solid, his judgement of the length, the bedrock of his success, was impeccable.

He was beaten once, off a doosra — Shillingford lobbed up one outside off, it bounced and turned away, rather than in, and Tendulkar’s bat connected air. If it had landed a few inches in, that ball could have caused trouble.

Tendulkar’s advent enlivened the crowd, which had been prodded into torpor by some bad cricket from the West Indians; the task of the visitors was made difficult by the lively pitch, and made impossible by their evident incompatibility with, if not dislike for, the longest format of the sport.

They’ve talked the talk, saying they are ready for the spinners, and that they’ve got to find the resolve to bat longer. They couldn’t act on their words again.

Pragyan Ojha took five wickets for 40, Ravichandran Aswhin picked up three for 45 after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to bowl first. The tourists lost their last eight wickets for 89 runs in one session. That collapse, each wicket’s fall, reanimated the crowd, for it needed 12 wickets to fall in the day for Tendulkar to come in to bat.

When the moment finally arrived, with about an hour and 20-odd overs left to be played in the day, Tendulkar rose to the occasion, and it seemed it was a Tendulkar very distinct from the diffident batsman we’ve seen in the recent Tests. There was something magical in the air. Maybe it was destiny.

Scoreboard
West Indies
Gayle c Sharma b Shami 11
Powell c Dhawan b Ojha 48
Bravo c Dhoni b Ashwin 29
Samuels c Vijay b Ojha 19
Chanderpaul c Ashwin b Kumar 25
Deonarine c Vijay b Ashwin 21
Ramdin not out 12
Sammy c Sharma b Ashwin 0
Shillingford lbw b Ojha 0
Best c Dhoni b Ojha 0
Gabriel c Dhoni b Ojha 1
Extras: (b 8, lb 8) 16
Total (all out; 55.2 overs) 182
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-86, 3-97, 4-140, 5-148, 6-162, 7-162, 8-162, 9-172, 10-182
Bowling
Kumar 17-2-45-1
Shami 12-2-36-1
Ashwin 15-2-45-3
Ojha 11.2-2-40-5

India
Vijay c Sammy b Shillingford 43
Dhawan c C’paul b Shillingford 33
Pujara not out 34
Tendulkar not out 38
Extras: (b 8, nb 1) 9
Total (2 wickets; 34 overs) 157
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-77
Bowling
Sammy 6-0-27-0
Gabriel 6-0-32-0
Shillingford 12-1-46-2
Best 5-0-27-0
Samuels 5-0-17-0

Mumbai, November 14
At 7 in the morning today, the cycle of frenzy that TV crews instigate was in motion outside the Wankhede Stadium. As people walked on the Marine Drive, the TV cameras and the Outside Broadcasting (OB) vans began to attract those who wanted to be seen on TV. There were up to 20 OB vans on the Marine Drive, and only 15-odd likely people — diehard fans — who could be interviewed.

The Mumbai dabbawala association people were the most prominent; they were five in number only, including a juvenile. They periodically shouted ‘Sachin, Sachin’, attracting the TV cameras and then being goaded by them. There were a few fans bearing the India flag or Tendulkar pictures. The enterprising fans managed to be interviewed by several journalists, declaring their love for Sachin, for Mumbai, for Maharashtra, for India.

Tendulkar had been given some 550 tickets for his special invitees for his final match for India. Most of them were in the Divecha Pavilion; its advantage is that it backs in the southern direction, and thus the sun passes by without discomfiting its occupants much. His invitees included friends, former cricketers, a journalist or two, and business associates or sponsors. His children Arjun and Sara were there for most of the day. There was a very special invitee, in one of the corporate boxes. Tendulkar’s mother Rajni had never come to a stadium to watch her son play for watching him play used to make her too nervous. She’d never be able to do it again — she grabbed the one final chance.

Rajni Tendulkar uses a wheelchair to move around; special ramps had to be set up for her to be able to come to the ground, and Tendulkar had personally seen to it that the ramps were going to work.

Also present was Tendulkar’s first coach Ramakant Achrekar. On the eve of the match, Tendulkar had tweeted: “I am really touched with #ThankYouSachin messages. Your support all these years have inspired me to give my best. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for 24 years of support.”

In the ground today, the contest seemed to be incidental, it seemed it was all about celebrating one man today.

The Indian government released two commemorative stamps in the morning; large portraits of himself were presented to Tendulkar; the West Indies captain Darren Sammy gave Tendulkar his team’s autographed jersey, in a huge frame; a specially minted gold coin was used for the toss.

At toss, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said: “We will be very fortunate if we get another Sachin. So it is important that we learn from the great man.” Dhoni added that he was going to have to disappoint the crowd because he was going to bowl first, and the fans were going to have to wait for the Tendulkar innings.

Due to the incompetence of the West Indians, that innings came earlier than expected. 

New Delhi, November 14
President Pranab Mukherjee today joined millions of cricket fans to hail the achievements of Sachin Tendulkar and expressed hope that the legendary cricketer will continue to serve the game as well as the nation.

Talking to reporters after the prize distribution function at Rashtrapati Bhavan League T-10 cricket tournament, Mukherjee said “today is a special day...I join millions of adoring fans in hailing the achievements of Sachin Tendulkar as he plays his last international match in Mumbai beginning today”.

Terming Tendulkar as “a great Ambassador of the game and of India” Mukherjee said he is a true icon who has inspired youth across the country by not only his stupendous records but by his conduct on and off the field.

New Delhi, November 14
Indian shuttlers endured a disappointing day at the China Open Super Series Premier with star player Saina Nehwal going down in the women's singles second round while Parupalli Kashyap crashed out of the men's singles competition.

While Saina lost 21-16 15-21 17-21 to unseeded Sun Yu of China, Arundhati Pantawane was defeated 13-21 10-21 by third seed Wang Yihan, also of China. Kashyap was defeated 11-21 12-21 by Kento Momota of Japan.

Saina, who was hoping to win her first trophy of the season, started off well, coming back from an early 4-1 deficit to dominate the opening game. But it was a completely different story in the second game as Sun opened up a 3-0 lead right at the start and maintained the advantage right till the end to even up the score.

The third and final game was an exciting affair with both players going all out. Sania put up good a fight, winning three consecutive games to draw level at 8-8 before the Chinese came up with an incredible seven point streak to lead 15-8. The Hyderabad girl was in no mood to go down without a fight and she produced a seven-point streak of her own to draw level yet again at 15-15. However, Sun had the last laugh, taking four points on the trot towards the end to wrap up the match.

Sun will now face compatriot and top seed Li Xuerui in the quarterfinals. — PTI

New Delhi, November 14
In an indication that they may no longer figure in Indian cricket's scheme of things, the senior trio of Virender Sehwag, pacer Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were dropped from the BCCI's list of contracted players for 2013-14.

In the list, pruned to 25 players from the previous year's 37, only five have been kept inside Grade A, under which players draw in Rs one crore per annum.The five in the top group include MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina and R Ashwin. Also there in the list is Tendulkar. All these players were there in the list last year as well.The axing from the list of contracted players could be the beginning of the end for Sehwag, who has not played a Test since March this year, and Zaheer, out for almost a year due to fitness issues. Gautam Gambhir, who has been dropped from the team due to poor form, and Yuvraj were demoted to Grade B, which draws a fixed salary of Rs 50 lakh. Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were rewarded for their good performances in the season gone by as they were promoted to Grade B from C. — PTI

Dharamsala, November 14
All-rounder Parveez Rasool slammed a brilliant 101-ball 97 but failed to save Jammu and Kashmir from being bowled out for just 178 by HP in their Group C match.

Rasool struck 17 fours in his blistering knock and was unlucky to have missed out on a century.

Opener Adil Rishi was the only other J&K batsman who contributed substantially with a 47. All the remaining batsmen could not touch double-digit scores. For HP, pacers Rishi Dhawan and Vikramjeet Malik shared seven wickets between them with four and three scalps respectively as the home side placed themselves in a commanding position. In reply, HP were 92 for one at the end of the day, trailing by 86 runs with nine first innings wickets in hand. Opener Sangram Singh and Paras Dogra were on 24 and 29 respectively.

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