March 2004, Rawalpindi – 2nd ODI, India v/s Pakistan
Sachin 141 (135b, 17*4s, 1*6s)
When someone
has a career as long as Sachin Tendulkar had, the ability of the person is
often subjected to scrutiny at different points in time. Some critics and
observers have at times made some points like Sachin is not a match winner and India
loses when Sachin scores a century. In my opinion, it’s a myth; a myth which
has haunted and muddled the minds of many cricket lovers. Sachin has scored 100
international centuries; 53 of them helped India win the match and 22 of them
came in draws, ties & abandoned matches. That leaves us with 25 centuries scored
by the ‘Little man’ which could not take the team through the finish line. I
know the statistics never convey the complete story but just take into
consideration the fact that India has not been among the strongest teams of the
world for most of the playing career of Sachin. It was only after the turn of the
new millennium that players like Rahul Dravid, Sourabh Ganguly and VVS Laxman
became potent enough to shoulder some of the burden that this great man carried
single handedly for so long. Let’s talk about one such innings in which Sachin
kept on looking for the support which never came; one such century which could
not win the match for India; one such instance when he disappointed those who
expected him to be a match winner.
In 2004,
India visited Pakistan for a full tour nearly after 15 years. The last time
Indians were in Pakistan, a young teenager made his debut for India. The
stories of a broken nose and shattered window of Peshawar Cricket Ground are a
part of the cricketing folklore; in both the cases the youngster was the
protagonist. The child prodigy had grown up and had become the most feared
batsman in the world; Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Sachin was the only player in
the Indian team to have played both forms of the game in Pakistan so it was his
responsibility to guide the team forward in this high voltage series. In the
1st ODI, India piped Pakistan by 5 runs in a nail-bitter. Pakistan struck back
with vengeance in the 2nd game at Rawalpindi and after selecting to
bat first, they piled up a mammoth total of 329. Pakistan and steep challenge,
it was all that was needed to charge up Sachin; he brought his ‘A-game’ to the
fore. Sehwag and Sachin opened the innings for India. Sachin played out the first
3 overs with caution; he even played out a maiden off arch rival Shoaib Akhtar.
In the fourth over, Shoaib with his ego pumping after the maiden, charged into
Sachin. Bang!! A lifted square-cut off a 145kmph delivery, raced into the
fence. The bowler spat in disgust and went back to his mark. The next one was
faster; 150kmph, on the middle-stump. Sachin played a magical flick for another
boundary; He had decided to fight fire with fire. The Pakistani speedsters kept
on bowling fast and Sachin’s bat kept on dispatching them faster. Many times
the pacers drifted it into the pads of Sachin and he played some glorious shots
through the on-side. His placement was so precise that evening that he even
bisected the minuscule gap between the wicketkeeper and the short fine-leg of
Shabbir Ahmed for a four.
The wickets
kept on tumbling from the other end but nothing affected Sachin’s focus. Sachin
completed his fifty with a single of Shoaib Malik; it took him 61 balls to
reach the land mark and in the process he smashed 6 classy boundaries. In the
very next over, he completed his 13,000 ODI runs with a single. By this time the
required run rate had climbed up to 7.25 runs per over. Sachin started looking
for boundaries in every other over and more often than not was successful. He
played a powerful on-drive off Sami, a deft glance off Afridi and a skillful paddle-sweep
off Shoaib Malik; all for smashing boundaries. In fact between 20th and 30th
over, he was able to get a boundary in 8 of the 11 overs. The planning, calculation
and execution of the knock was of top notch.
At the end
of 30 overs, India was left with a daunting target of 153 off 120 balls with 7
wickets to spare. Sachin completed his century with a single of Shoaib Akhtar
and became the first Indian to score an ODI ton on the Pakistani soil. But
Sachin didn’t celebrate much; he knew that the mountain in front of him was too
steep and scaling it would require all the energy that he could muster. He
decided to cut loose and slog-swept Afridi for a huge six over mid-wicket. A
couple of boundaries off Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzaq each kept India on
track. But with Rahul Dravid on other end failing to keep up the momentum,
Sachin went for a shot too many. Another slog-sweep towards the mid-wicket was
caught by Abdul Razzaq. Sachin accumulated 141 runs off 135 balls with 17 fours
and a solitary six. The glass castle of Indian batting line-up came down
crashing after that. All the remaining batsmen fell in the pursuit of quick
runs. Some lusty hitting by Laxmipathy Balaji and Romesh Pawar was not
sufficient and we lost the game by 12 runs.
A heartbroken
Sachin collected the Man of the Match trophy afterwards. He would have loved to
swap it for a victory any given day. But that is not how it works. The second
highest contribution on the score sheet was 37; approximately a quarter of what
Sachin scored. This valiant effort came in from Pakistani bowlers in form of
extras.
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