Following his retirement, we pay tribute to Sachin Tendulkar by looking back at one of his best ever innings against Pakistan.

by Shayan Siddiqui (16th November 2013)

It’s over. The man whose name has been synonymous with batting for my entire life has played his last ever innings for his country and bowed out of this great game. 

My earliest memory of Sachin Tendulkar is of my elder brother saying “Tendulkar can probably hit any ball to the boundary for four, there’s no-one else quite like him.” I grew up with this thought, never seeing as much of the man as I would have liked due to the lack of coverage of international cricket in the UK at the time. Instead, I would hear snippets of what he had done or follow his scores via Ceefax – even the internet was a bit of a luxury in the late 90s! The Chennai Test came and went, I heard about the magnificent 136 that Sachin had made in a losing cause, but that was overshadowed in my mind by the famous Pakistan win. It wasn’t until the 1999 World Cup, a lot of which was shown on free-to-air TV in England, that I started to see a bit more of him. However at the age of 11, I was probably still too young to fully appreciate what he was capable of. Fast forward four years to the 2003 World Cup, a time when cricket was at the forefront of my mind. A Sky Sports subscription was in place at home specifically for the tournament, and an India-Pakistan contest was penciled in for Saturday 1st March.

Pakistan had started badly in the tournament having been defeated by Australia and England, while India were in a slightly better position following their 82 run win over England a few days earlier. The build-up to the India-Pakistan contest had started long before the day – a close Indian friend and I had been exchanging jibes for months, a microcosm of what was no doubt happening all over the world and the tension leading up to the Centurion contest was unbearable. Tendulkar himself later stated he had been thinking about the game over a year in advance. He didn’t sleep for 12 nights leading up to the match as everyone around him kept reminding him about the 1st of March. 

The roar of the crowd coming through my TV set on that Saturday morning was astounding considering the match was being played on neutral soil – the emotion, the noise, the colour and flag waving remains vivid in my memory and I recall feeling a sense of relief when Waqar Younis chose to bat first, thus ruling out the possibility of a nerve-jangling run chase. A total of 273-7 felt like enough with a bowling attack consisting of Waqar, Wasim and Shoaib. Two overs into the Indian run chase, I knew it wasn’t enough. 

Wasim Akram opened the bowling and on his 3rd ball he gave Tendulkar a bit of width outside off stump – cue a back foot punch through point to the boundary. It was a sign of things to come. Shoaib Akhtar, who had made a few aggressive remarks to the press about what he might do in this game, came charging in and the final three balls of that second over will be ingrained in my memory forever. First, Tendulkar reached out to a very short wide 94mph delivery and cut it over the 3rd man boundary for six – a shot that has become almost a symbol of the incredible innings Tendulkar played that day.

The next ball was thankfully fuller and straighter but it was still cannon fodder for Tendulkar, a trademark flick of the wrists resulting in that familiar MRF bat face pointing straight back at the bowler; in the blink of an eye the ball hit the ropes at square leg and popped over the advertising hoardings. If I thought those two shots were special, the final ball of that over pretty much crushed whatever hopes I might have had of a Pakistan win. 96mph from Shoaib, a good length on off stump – Tendulkar shuffled across to get behind the line and with almost no back lift, blocked the ball past mid-on for four. The raucous noise, the flags, the horns, a score of 27-0 after two overs and the world’s greatest batsman displaying the definition of being “in the zone” – I was mesmerised. We all were. 

It didn’t seem to stop despite wickets falling at the other end and a dropped catch. Another flick through square leg off Waqar before one more absolutely unforgettable pearler. Wasim bowled a decent ball just outside off, Tendulkar rocked back and played a textbook cover drive, holding the pose for the cameras – the look on Wasim’s face said it all. Waqar wasn’t spared either, width from him resulted in a ferocious slash through the covers and Tendulkar also found the gaps off the spinners with ease. A corker from Shoaib ended the innings on 98 but it was all over by then as far as I was concerned and some sensible batting from the rest saw India home and effectively knocked Pakistan out of the tournament.

At the end of the match I had a strange and unusual feeling. The manner of the defeats against Australia and England were genuinely painful but this loss to India felt different. Instead of being angry and disappointed, I actually felt privileged to have witnessed those 75 balls that Sachin faced – he was truly in a league of his own and had completely dismantled some of my cricketing idols. Now many I’m sure will say that his innings against Australia in Sharjah or his 200* eclipsed the Centurion knock, and of course there are lots of differing opinions out there regarding Sachin’s best innings. That’s the joy of the man, the length of his career has meant that a number of different generations have been touched by his magnificence at various points. We will all have our views but we can certainly agree that there have been, and will be, very few others like him and we should feel honoured that we’ve been around to follow the career of one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

Aside from his batting, I’ve always admired the way Sachin has carried himself off the field considering the adoration he gets from one billion of his fellow countrymen. There is no real blemish on his career which is in itself remarkable as he’s been playing since 1989! There has not been a hint of arrogance or cockiness about him – even his most aggressive strokes often appear to be caressed over the boundary rope and his feet have remained firmly on the ground despite his superstar status. The speech he gave in Mumbai after his final match was a perfect example of humility and gratitude; something all aspiring cricketers should watch and learn from. Sachin Tendulkar is a role model not just for cricketers, but for us mere mortals as well!

Thank you for all the memories and I hope I speak for all Pakistani fans when I wish you all the best in your well deserved retirement.

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