The day: 5th Nov 09 OR Simply Sachin's day
PROLOGUE
I don't know what to call that, when u make yourself ready to watch India’s match turning your TV on and turning your life off. Indian team will show their own style of performance, yes the same happened on the day when India faced Aussies in their 5th of their 7 match series .Aussies won the toss and elected to bat.
Unsurprisingly Indian bowlers were with their top most form (we had best bowlers on that day Nehra, Munaf) ,they even made the out-of-form player to get into his life time best form.(OH Marsh, you need not thank us. It our duty......)
I thought they would have planned for 300 to 320 score, but our guys planned the other way.As youu know our guys planned better so Aussies managed to only score 350 ( Spl thanks to Nehra,Jadeja and all our fielders who fielded well )
But few of Sachin’s fans could have sensed that something going to turn up that night from their LORD, he reacted in such a way after taking the catch of the last ball of the Aussies innings
So What else left that night, still the total Hyderabadi crowds were thundering and blowing, as if India needed 120 to win in 50 overs .But the crew were ready for another event, from the huge electronic score board with bold colors “SACHIN 7 MORE RUNS SHORT OF HIS 17000 RUNS IN ODI”.
Sehwag and Sachin into the filed with their own weapons(Sachin with his new Adidas bat, the one signed by him)
Little master’s MASTER innings:
With the target of 350 and an additional pressure of being 7 runs away from 17000 thousand, Master was not only batting against Aussies but battling against his own pressure (“If you ever work hard and reach top of the world, the world will expect you to reach sun”- true in the case of little genius)
Sachin was facing a tough time in the field when Indian innings started .I remember a message from my colleague “India chasing a target of 350, Sachin is chasing a target of 7 runs”. Thank God Sehwag on the other end was making Aussies to rethink about their target, but no other way.
“Congratulation to Sachin for his 17000 runs in ODI” this was the time everything changed, yes the whole stadium started celebrating, diwali, Ramzan and Christmas altogether for few moments.
Sachin from there on started to middle each and every ball through his favorite text book style shots. Many among us was sure that it’s going to be our MASTERS game. But still on the other end wickets were falling at regular intervals.
Sehwag who gave India the important start went out, following him was Gambhir and then Yuvi. Till this Sachin on the other end was very balanced and prepared himself to fire at the opposition. It looked as if he was sharpening his knife and was prepared to take of a battle one handedly.
Hauritz – an upcoming off spinner with economy below 5 in ODI career. Sachin was facing Hauritz with 3 wickets down and still 7 run rate required in more than 35 over.I still remember Ravi Shastri mentioning that the spinner will play a big role in the middle of the innings.But Sachin had some other idea with him
Sachin mercilessly, charged down the wicket and took him over long off to a mighty six, usually Sachin won’t be playing this much aggressively, you could see this type of aggressiveness in him rarely ( Sharja cup finals,2003 WC VS PAK,VB series final).Then in the same fashion, he came down the pitch again and smashed it to long on to make 2nd six of the over.
That was the turning point of the match, it looked such as “Hot sunny day suddenly turning with dark clouds and started showering heavily” (heavenly for Indians).Aussies felt the pressure, Ponting was wetting his hands too often(I think you all know what he does for that), more than what he used to do .
I thought Dhoni will play his cool innings and Sachin will take care of the run rate so even if something goes wrong Dhoni will take over from there. But then came a most spectacular catch of the series, Voges to a great catch in point region. The ball from Dhoni’s bat was travelling like a rocket, even the cameraman turned the camera to boundary , then realizing the catch was take at point.So Even our final hope got collapsed
Now came in Raina, if someone challenges you to ask the question,with the condition that the answer must be known to all, you can go with this “To which ball Raina will suffer to play”.Yes even a crazy foot-ball fan can say Raina is weak to a play bouncer and he was the last recognized batsmen in the team. So I thought the game is over(Not only me but almost all among us)
But to all our surprises Raina played a special innings.Back with Master now, Sachin who was only able to see wickets falling on the other end, was still focused and determined ( as he always does) reached his century in a quick session.
You want me to quote an example for optimism , when Sachin was at 120+ Sunil Gavaskar was saying “ and Sachin is still 880 runs away from his 18000”. A true Master’s fan will be double happy if master is in form and Sunny is having the mic.
He even quoted more statements ( tried some poems,I would say) for each and every movement of Tendulkar and thats Sunny at his best
There were totally four sixes, the one which he dismissed the Watson’s delivery to midwicket ( “Remembered similar type of shot in Caddic’s over long time back”) and along with it came beautiful boundaries, the shot of the day was one which he played an inside out to covers in Voges over.
Everything went on well, we all thought Sachin will even break Saed’s record( Rivalry record) and score double century. But Raina went out at the movement with 50+, he played his innings. I think many among us would have noticed the reaction of Tendulkar, he was upset when his partner got dismissed, everything was going fine with 130+ partnership in more than run ball.
Then came inexperienced Jadeja, India took the power play from there. Tendulkar just changed his tactics, tried to play the innings right through the end. He just reduced the aggressiveness to stay back and win the battle. But poor man Jadeja struggled a bit (more worst I would say).Most of the strike was taken by him . So Tend had no choice other than to go on. When he tried such a thing, he was out for Misbah’s shot.
Ya the whole India was even out , when Sachin gone out for 175.Almost 90% Indians thought it would be same as that of India Vs Pak test at Chennai again.
Anti Climax
Even after a great fight from a warrior we lost the battle, the entire dressing room was upset. Sachin not only as a best batsmen but also as a best sportsmen, he was not happy to collect his MOM award. He was very upset , eyes almost filled with tears.
For the next few days, in all the channels he was the headlines(this is not new for him)
The impact was even seen in many of my friends mail signature, all had a display of Sachin in their signature
The pickable among that is
“ I will c god when I die, till then I will see Sachin” – it’s a mere true.
சச்சின்-Mania will continueeeee…………
