December 2005, Delhi – 2nd Test match, India v/s Sri Lanka
Sachin 109 (196b, 14*4s, 1*6s)
In his long
and illustrious career, Sachin has not shown many short comings; that is, if he has shown any at all. But if I had to take my pick, then I would say it was the
indifference in his game when he approached any big milestone. For example, in
2009 when India squared up against Australia for a 7 match ODI series, Sachin
was on the verge of completing his 17000 runs in the 50 overs format of the
game before the series. But Sachin’s game was tentative; he looked stressed and
failed to get going in the first 4 games of the series. What transpired in the
5th match is an epic but the bottom-line was the pressure of the
expectations got to him for a change. However, he always found out ways to break
out of the nutshell and be the flamboyant stroke-maker that we know him as. And
something similar happened when he was stuck on for quite some time on 34 Test
centuries.
India versus
Sri Lanka test matches in late 1990s and early 2000s were often dubbed as ‘the
battle of the maestros’. Sachin lead the batting line-up for India and
Muralitharan showed the way for the Sri Lankan bowling attack. It was an era of
exciting contest between the bat and the ball. Indians were renowned for their
crafty batting against the spinners and the Sri Lankans were the finest
exponent of spin bowling. So when the Sri Lankans came to India towards the
fag-end of 2005, the excitement was palpable. The series was eagerly awaited
for another reason. Sachin had spent almost 17 months without a test century.
He was stuck at 34 of them; the World record which he was sharing with Sunil
Gavaskar at that point in time. The century that would break the long standing
milestone had taken a long time to come. The anticipation of the inevitable was
transforming into frustration for the cricket lovers. But then the prayers of a
billion fans were finally answered in Delhi, when the two teams squared up for
the 2nd test.
On slow and
dry wicket, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first.
India made a horrendous start to the proceedings when Gautam Gambhir departed
in the very first over. But Dravid and Laxman lent some stability to the
innings with a partnership of 54 runs. Dravid’s dismissal to a classical
off-break from Muralitharan brought Sachin to the wicket. Sachin started with
caution. He took his time to settle down and didn’t play any aggressive shots. Sachin
waited for the loose ball but they were at a premium that afternoon. Dilhara Fernando
bowled a couple of them; they were full and drifting in to the pads; Sachin
flicked them into the fence and went back to the cautious mode without any fuss.
Most of his runs came in singles and doubles but once in a while he also
dispatched a few to the fence. Muralitharan was bowling a tantalizing line to
him to deceive him in flight, but Sachin refrained from taking the bait. But
when he was in his 40s, he played a glorious cover drive of the off-spinner for
a rare boundary. The concentration and temperament of Sachin was at its full throttle.
With time, his fluency came back into his game and the runs started to flow
freely.
Sachin started
the post Tea session with a bang. Muralitharan was thwarted by the patience of
the ‘Little champion’ and decided to try something different. He came round the
wicket to change the line of attack. First ball was a flighted delivery; Sachin
jumped up to the pitch of the ball and played an inside-out cover drive; the
ball rocketed into the fence for a four. Second ball was short and spun the
other way; Sachin rocked on to the back-foot and executed a ferocious square
cut through Third-man for another boundary. The next ball was fractionally
short; but the little man punched it through the off-side with great panache
for another boundary. The ‘Spin Doctor’ was served with 3 fours off 3 balls. The
shackles of constraint were broken. Sachin also blasted a six of Malinga Bhandara;
it was a tremendous shot of a good ball. On the sight of a flighted leg-break,
Sachin danced down the pitch and hammered the ball out of the long-on fence for
huge six. The onslaught forced the Sri Lankan captain to bring back Chaminda Vaas
into the attack. But he could not do much either to stem the flow of runs.
Sachin craved 2 boundaries in one over of Vaas on either side of the wicket;
the second boundary of the over brought Sachin into the ‘nervous nineties’.
The syndrome
of ‘nervous nineties’ had been Sachin’s ‘Achilles heel’ in the latter half of
his career. Sachin holds the record of getting stuck in 90s; 28 is the number of instances
with Tests and ODIs combined. It is just another entry into a long list of
records which would stand the test of the time. Hence, whenever Sachin got into
that zone of 90 to 100, the whole of India went into a trance of fear and
anticipation.
But that day
Sachin was in a different zone. He played with all the composure he could
muster. He paddled a delivery from Vaas through fine-leg for a boundary with ease
to move to 97. The milestone was at a touching distance now; but he had to wait
for another nine balls to make those 3 runs. When he was on 99, Sachin nudged
one on the leg-side off Vaas and took off for a single. Even before he
completed the run, he punched the air and the crowd erupted. The long standing
record of Sunil Gavaskar had fallen; the pupil had beaten the teacher. The 35th
century took its time to come but the nation gave it the celebration that it
deserved. It was not the most exciting knock that Sachin played in his career, but
in terms of discipline and temperament, it was a gem.
India won
the match and Sachin ended up being the only centurion of the match.
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