March 1998, Chennai – 1st
Test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Sachin 155*(191b, 14*4s, 4*6s)
When
Australians landed on the shores of India in the summers of '98, it was dubbed
as the battle of the best batsman versus the best bowler of the world. Shane
Warne had bamboozled the best of the batsmen around the world with his bagful
of tricks. On the other hand Sachin Tendulkar was already a veteran in the
international circuit and had taken apart the best of the bowling attacks. BCCI played
it smart and chucked the Aussies into a warm-up match with Mumbai. The idea was
to give Sachin a good sighter of Shane. But you can’t beat the kangaroos in
mind games. Sachin took apart the Aussie attack in that match, thread by thread.
He hammered a sublime 204 of 192 balls. But Mark Taylor, the Aussie captain
refrained from using Warne against him. This practice match had ensured that
the best batsman of the world was ready to take on the ‘Wizard of Oz’. Both the
teams arrived in Chennai. The Aussie team had done their homework well. They decided
to play two spinners and use the pacers as a containing option. Warne would be
their main attacking option and the young Gavin Robertson was expected to
assist him in the spinner friendly conditions. The Aussies knew that the
pitches in India were prone to having rough patches. So their plan was to have
Warne bowl from round the wicket and turn the ball sharply towards the leg
stump. On the other side, the Indian team management were having a serious
discussion in the dressing room to chalk out a strategy to deal with the
Aussies. Sachin came up and suggested that the heat & humidity of Chennai
and the docile track would blunt the morale of the Australians anyway. And, if
their premier bowler can be taken out, then there was no way that the
Australians could put up a fight. The Indians knew pretty well that Shane Warne
was a specialist in bowling the batsmen around the legs and most of the Indian
batsmen were worried about this, as Indians were not exactly known for sweeping
the ball. But Sachin had a plan to deal with the issue.
The test
began and India won the toss. It was a no brainer to bat first on a dry looking
Chennai pitch. Nayan Mongia and Navjot Singh Sidhu gave India a solid start. As
expected, the Aussie pacers looked pedestrian on the lifeless Chennai wicket. After
a partnership of 122, both the openers were dismissed in quick succession. And then
it was time for the ‘Clash of the Titans’. The Australian spinners decided to test
the ability of Indian batters with some classical spin bowling. Warne started
to flight the ball from over the wicket to Sachin to entice the batsmen to
drive. Sachin faced one such ball and did execute the drive perfectly. The
bowler persisted and bowled it a little shorter this time. Sachin went
for the drive again and edged it to first slip. Mark Taylor took a good catch over
his head. Warne 1, Sachin 0.
India got bundled
out for a paltry 257. Aussies replied with 329 and took a lead of 71 runs.
Sachin caught Warne off Anil Kumble and reminded the blonde tweaker that the
battle was still on. India started their second innings with two solid
partnerships. By the time Sachin came out, it was the morning session of day 4
and India was already in a lead.
It was a
typical 4th day Chepauk pitch that greeted Sachin. The roughs created
by bowler’s foot marks were clearly evident and the cracks on the dry pitch
were getting wider with the hour. Every
time the ball landed on one of these craters, it bounced unpredictably and
turned venomously. Mark Taylor didn’t waste any time and brought in Shane
Warne straight away. But Sachin had his aces ready. When Shane bowled from over the
wicket, he took a middle stump guard and switched to a leg stump guard for
round the wicket deliveries. Warne started off with bowling his regular leg-breaks
from over the wicket, pitching them just outside the line of off stump. It was
the same line and length that accounted for Sachin in the first innings. But
Sachin knew better this time. Rather than going for full blooded drives, he used his
nimble footwork to reach to the pitch of the ball and dab it for singles. The Aussie
spinner lost his patience and decided to switch to a more wicket-to-wicket
line. The little man was ready for this. He drove the straight balls by getting to the
pitch of it, and played it through the covers; and he hit them hard. The temperatures soared up during
the post-lunch session and the sweaty palms of Warne dropped some rank bad short balls. They were
cut and pulled with equal savagery. Running out of ideas, he came round the wicket.
The idea was to exploit the rough around the leg stump to get a bowled or
a bat-pad by close in fielders. He started with a forward & backward short-leg.
But Sachin was waiting for this; it was a good length ball, pitched outside the
leg stump. Bang!! Sachin took a long stride and slog swept the ball for a six
over the mid-wicket fence. Warne bowled the next one fuller; this one was delicately
paddled round the corner for a four. He kept on trying and Sachin obliged every
now and then with an array of extraordinary shots. If Warne was dealt with vengeance,
then Michael Kasprowicz, Gavin Robertson, Mark Waugh, Greg Blewett and Paul Reiffel
were hammered with equal disdain. He counter attacked everything that the
Aussies threw at him. That afternoon, his complete arsenal of strokes were unleashed;
straight drive of the front foot & cover drive of the back foot, square cut
along the ground & ferocious pulls into the air, deft late cuts &
powerful hoick over long-on. He reached his century in just 127 balls. Sachin
battered the opposition into submission with an unbeaten 155. In getting those runs
he had blasted 4 sixes and helped the ball over the boundary 14 times. Warne 1,
Sachin 1.
India
declared at 418 and asked the Aussies to chase 348 in 100 odd overs on a
minefield of a pitch. Except for a few Australian supporters, no one expected
that Aussies would even manage a draw out of this situation. Some even went on
to say that all Australia wanted was a miracle. But that miracle never came. India
bundled them for 168 and won the test match by 179 runs. Sachin was declared
the Man of the Match for his superb innings on a deteriorating pitch.
This
hammering affected the psyche of the Aussies very badly. In the upcoming 2nd
test in Kolkata, they crashed to one of their biggest thrashings ever, by an
innings and 239 runs. And in that extended summer of 1998, Sachin caned Shane
like a school kid and in the process played some of the most stunning knocks
one will ever see. India went on to win the test series by 2-1. Sachin was
declared the Man of the Series for amassing 446 runs at an average of more than
100, at a strike rate above 80.
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