Onscreen Sachin Tendulkar fires up Musheer Khan

Mumbai, March 12

Sachin Tendulkar’s presence on the third day served as a huge motivating factor for 19-year-old Musheer Khan, whose patient 136 turned the Ranji Trophy final result into a mere formality with hosts out-batting Vidarbha.

Crowds show up

The opening day marked the presence of enthusiastic crowd turning up in decent numbers to full up the Vijay Merchant Pavilion. A few fans, though, complained about the lack of a scorecard for fans despite a manually-operated scorecard operational across the field.

The batting legend was present for the morning session on the third day as Musheer piled up his second century in the three knockout games of this season.

“I did not even know that Sachin sir was here,” Musheer said. “But when I was batting on 60, I saw him on the big screen and (thereon) I batted with the motivation that he is watching today and I have to impress sir,” he said.

Not only Tendulkar, India captain Rohit Sharma was also present at the Wankhede, underlining the growing importance of domestic red-ball matches.

Tendulkar took to his social media platforms to share his observations. “Mumbai displayed a lot more discipline, patience and commitment in the second innings,” he wrote.