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Boxing day test

Those 4 runs….

The brouhaha surrounding the elusive “Ton of tons” and the more recent incisive remarks made by Shoaib Akhtar has made sure that neither the people nor the media ever get bored of the Sachin Syndrome. Although I don’t intend to restore the lost pride of this great man….. (It would have been stupid had I tried that :P),but this recent controversy just reminded me of a small instance that Harsha Bhogle once mentioned in his talks. Something makes me think that this is perhaps the right time to share this story with you.

Date : 23rd March,2003

Venue : New Wanderers Stadium,Jo’Burg

It was supposed to be a dream match for India…..A match which instilled hope in the hearts of all Indians……All life had come to a standstill…..India were in the World Cup finals after a sprawling gap of 20 years. Every one had imagined it to be a perfect denouement with India winning the title and also avenging the monstrous defeat against Australia in the league stages.

But it is not always what we see in movies,with the underdogs toiling hard and managing a narrow margin victory. Everything had gone awry from the beginning. Zaheer Khan opened the match with a no ball.He ended up conceding 15 runs in the first over itself…India never seemed to be getting a hold in that match…Australian openers Gilchrist and Hayden made full use of their predatory instincts and smothered India to the very best of their abilities. The windy innings played by Ponting was the final nail in the coffin for India…Badly battered and bruised, India had to chase down a mammoth total of 360 runs..

Now a little bit on the genius of Sachin…..Legends are not made in a day and neither was he…It was what followed which makes him one of the revered persons in a country teeming with a population of 1.2 billion… One must have heard this maxim “Never see difficulty in an opportunity..Always see the opportunity in every difficulty..” It was Sachin who actually implemented this in his sermon to the  Indian team after the 1st innings

Sachin : So we need 360 runs to win. At what rate do we need to chase??

Yuvraj : At around 7 runs per over.

Sachin : We have some of the best batsmen in our team.Can we manage to score one boundary per over.

Sehwag (hesitatingly) : Yes, we can. But what purpose will it serve..We still cant manage to win against their bowling attack.

Sachin : The way I see it is that if we can manage 1 boundary per over, then keeping in mind the quality of batting attack that we have, we can manage 3-4 singles in the remaining 5 balls.. And there will be overs when we can manage 2-3 boundaries…Am I right??

Everyone (In chorus) : Yes, we can !!

This is the effect that the mere presence of Sachin serves…Tendulkar not only preached them but also made sure that he sets up an example…He played a flawless straight drive off the 4th ball that he faced…He got out on the next ball..This was a fodder for the critics who have always maintained that he has failed to perform in the crucial matches.Perhaps they suffer from what Aamir Khan suffered in Ghajni..SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS..It is highly important to remind them of Sharjah1996 and the more recent Hyderabad match….Battles are not always won in the battlefield..Sometimes they are won outside…But, India ended up losing the match by a huge gap of 125 runs

As most of us students will agree that marks are never a true reflector of our potential, being a cricket lover,I feel that runs should never be a criteria of one’s greatness. Sachin’s greatness should never be gauged by the number of centuries he scores,the no. of matches he plays…(Unfortunately both of them have been a characteristic of his success in the media)..Instead he should be admired for his attitude towards the game,towards the beauty of the shots that he play and the perfection he imparts to them and  towards the spirit that instead of having broken several of his fingers,he is holding the bat high and the flag even higher. No wonder,that most of the Indian team members dedicated this victory to SACHIN TENDULKAR.

(P.S :1)I hold both Rahul Dravid and VVS Lakshman in the same regard as that of Sachin. It is never a choice of selecting between them. Being a cricket lover, it is just the beauty of his shots, that makes me favour him than the rest of the guys. 😀

2) The instances mentioned in the conversation script are true but not verbatim.)

Sachin scores the 100th ton…Finally

Sachin Tendulkar can finally breath a sigh of relief.  His dismal performance in the recently concluded India England Test series is being linked to the heavy pressure that the master blaster is facing to reach the ton of tons. The ICC has finally decided to tweak a few of its rules to confer that award upon the GOD of cricket.

Addressing the media,ICC president Sharad Pawar said “Sachin has been under unwanted pressure from the last couple of months solely attributed to the hype surrounding his 100th ton. We have decided to finally cut him some slack.He has already scored a double hundred last year against SA. According to the previous rules,all the hundreds are counted under different categories. Henceforth, a double hundred will be counted as equivalent to  2 hundreds.Sachin’s chase for that elusive hundred has ended.”

The BCCI has welcomed this new move of ICC. BCCI spokesperson said “Sachin had been spending sleepless nights over this thing. We completely support this new rule. This move will certainly boost the morale of the Indian team.Afterall, in the long run, it has always been the personal records which matter,not the team’s performance as a whole. Keeping in mind people’s sentiments attached to Sachin,this series will be remembered for Sachin’s unparalled feat instead of the pathetic team performance.”

If some internal sources are to be believed, after drawing flak from the former cricketers and media channels over the awry selection process, the BCCI has forced ICC into adopting this new rule. The motive is simple. To divert people’s attention and to play with their sentiments.

On being asked for his take on the new rule Rahul Dravid said “Good for him I guess! Afterall, the GOD in a temple is always more important than the Wall protecting him!”

Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja has also appealed to the ICC to consider his 4 50’s equivalent to 2 hundreds.He said that after being praised for the first time(attributed to his last knock of 78) this would definitely help to boost up his image and he can rake in more moolah in the next IPL.

(Disclaimer : This article was not written with an intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments.I am one of the biggest admirers of the Master Blaster.The sole intention of this blogpost is to create humor.Hope you liked it)