Every seat is bound to be taken on Friday as cricket lovers would be there to encourage Sachin every step of the way to a farewell century.
Sachin Tendulkar
Mumbai: Every seat is bound to be taken on Friday as cricket lovers would be there to encourage him every step of the way to a farewell century that seems eminently possible.
The cricket faithful who had come to the Wankhede stadium regardless of the seemingly dim prospect of Sachin Tendulkar batting on the first day after Dhoni put the West Indies in were rewarded when the Master Blaster descended the pavilion steps at 3.32 pm to a guard of honour from the visitors. For all the frenzy around his 200th and last Test, Sachin was the calmest man in a cauldron of noise in south Mumbai in the next hour and 22 minutes to the draw of stumps.
Every seat is bound to be taken on Friday as cricket lovers would be there to encourage him every step of the way to a farewell century that seems eminently possible. All the distilled wisdom and experience of 24 years in the international crease were evident in a batsman who seemed mentally in the 'zone' already, blotting out everything except the task at hand.
On a day on which the West Indian batting carried very little logic of Test match cricket, the senior most performer of world cricket demonstrated how to meet the demands of the longest format.
No wonder his fiercest opponent of many a battle, Shane Warne, was tweeting that 'Sachin was the best batsman I've seen' from the commentary box where he is an honoured guest on the occasion.
The decibel levels at Mumbai's cricket shrine will be unbelievably high if the 'God' of cricket goes on to seal his 24-year career with his 52nd Test century and his 101st in international cricket on the very date he made his Test debut in Karachi  November 15, 1989, the chronological coincidence perhaps prophesying another of cricket's most cherished landmarks to the Little Master.
Common sense cricket was never the West Indies’ longest suit even in the heyday of their glory. They hit another of their abysmal lows in the second Test match, probably distracted more than the master who is playing his 200th Test match. The batting conditions were a test, as they usually tend to be on the first day of a Wankhede stadium pitch on which the curator may have left a little more grass than normal to help keep the wicket bound for a five-day Test.
The West Indies would have to put in a tremendous performance from here to stay competitive against Team India whose openers compiled a sensible stand marked by some attractive strokes before a twin strike in three balls by spinner Shillingford undid their good work. And when they departed, they were replaced by the ‘man of the match’ Tendulkar who gathered his 38* with the patience of a zen master who could stay calm in the midst of a maelstrom of noise, striking six boundaries with the poise of a classical Test batsman aware of all the angles and the ability to get to the pitch of the ball.
The visiting captain, Darren Sammy, would have to cop a fair bit of the criticism for a stunning ‘Collapso’ as Caribbean batting collapses tend to be described, tonguein-cheek. Having spoken of batsmen stepping up to the plate to take greater responsibility, he was probably guilty of the worst stroke of the day — a wild heave top-edged to speed up the collapse after the fall of Shivnarine Chanderpaul who, in his 149 Tests before this, is already the world’s ‘losingest’ cricketer, having figured in 67 lost causes already.
Chanderpaul did his best today, although not in his trademark style. On the contrary, he surprised his followers, who may be accustomed to seeing a dour performer who carries his side’s batting on his lean shoulders, by striking the very second ball for six off India’s most successful bowler of the day, Pragyan Ojha.
Batting more like the electric hare on a greyhound racetrack than the proverbial snail, the Guyanese lent some perspective to the batting conditions.
Dhoni, in his inimitable counter-intuitive logic, had put the West Indies even though he had only two quicks in his specialist list of four bowlers in the playing XI.
Having spoken about the dampness after Wednesday noon’s inspection, he may have been convinced even more by the greenish tinge Thursday morning. Nothing succeeds like success as the skipper who led India to triumph in the last five Tests in a row proves in such spectacular style. His team is ensconced in the driver’s seat here.
The two medium fast youngsters, Md.Shami and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, repaid their skipper’s trust with some genuine swing and seam aided by bounce. Had they been a touch more lucky, they may have got more than the single wicket each picked up.
Shami squared Gayle up with a beauty that bounced even as it left the batsman and set up a simple catch for backward point. Kumar’s away seamer to Chanderpaul was equally impressive, cutting away from leg stump to off to give tall Ashwin at first slip a simple catch with which he could redeem himself after having put down a similar one to reprieve opener Kieran Powell who went on to make the top score.
The spinners enjoyed all the success thanks as much to the extra bounce that the first day pitch at the Wankhede routinely provides as the West Wankhede routinely provides as the West Indian propensity to commit hara-kiri at the crease. Ashwin, playing his 17th Test became the
fastest bowler to 100 Test wickets since Clarrie Grimmett in 1931 providing fodder along the way for Dhoni's safe and slick glove work behind the stumps. The skipper has now passed the 250-victim mark with 215 catches and 36 stumpings.
Ojha delighted in picking a five-for, his persistent line of attack proving too tight for the visitors to shake off without a touch of madness in trying to force any odd ball they chose to attack. The batsmen seemed to disagree with a couple of the decisions but there was little decisions but there w in their approach to suggest they would have benefited greatly even had they been reprieved by the English umpires. The inexpl cable cricket of the We Indies only lengthened with Sammy taking the new ball himself to share with Shannon Gabriel, the pair being not the most poten ones to have ever opened the attack for the West Indies, once feared for their great fas bowlers. West Indies (1st innings): C. Gayle c Sharma b Mohammed Shami 11, K. Powell c Dhawan b Ojha 48, D.
SCORECARD Bravo c Dhoni b Ashwin 29, M. Samuels c Vijay b Ojha 19, S. Chanderpaul c Ashwin b Kumar 25, N.
Deonarine c Vijay b Ashwin 21, D. Ramdin (not out) 12, D. Sammy c Sharma b Ashwin 0, S. Shillingford lbw b Ojha 0, T. Best c Dhoni b Ojha 0, S. Gabriel c Dhoni b Ojha 1. Extras (b 8, lb 8) 16. Total (all out in 55.2 overs) 182.
FoW: 1-25, 2-86, 3-97, 4-140, 5-148, 6-162, 7-162, 8-162, 9-172.
Bowling: Kumar 17-2-45-1, Shami 12-2-36-1, Ashwin 15-2-45-3, Ojha 11.2-2-40-5.
India (1st innings): M. Vijay c Sammy b Shillingford 43, S. Dhawan c Chanderpaul b Shillingford 33, C.
Pujara (batting) 34, S. Tendulkar (batting) 38. Extras (b 8, nb 1) 9. Total (two wickets in 34 overs) 157.
FoW: 1-77, 2-77. Bowling: D. Sammy 6-0-27-0, Gabriel 6-0-32-0, Shillingford 12-1-46-2, Best 5-0-27-0, Samuels 5-0-17-0.
( Source : dc )
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