Sachin Tendulkar brought a different mood and complexion altogether to the Wankhede Stadium.
Cheteshwar Pujara-Sachin Tendulkar
Mumbai: So much has happened in just two days of the second Test — 720 runs, 23 wickets and 20 catches. However, as a contest, the match may have lost its sheen on the opening day itself when the Calypso collapse took place. The match also lost a great deal of its context the moment Sachin Tendulkar was snapped up by the West Indian captain Darren Sammy who may be fast becoming world’s first specialist fielder-captain (5 catches in the innings).
The Test was billed outright as a celebration of the longest serving cricketer of the modern era that the five hours after Sachin brought a different mood and complexion altogether to the Wankhede Stadium. The Little Master committed one technical error too many in flirting with the upper cut against pace and the cut against the spin as if to suggest that the most modern era marked by T20 cricket may have spoiled his pristine technique somewhat. However, given the totality of the experience of a very emotional farewell Test, Sachin had once again delivered.
Team India would not, however, be complaining about the stands emptying fast after lunch once the city’s favourite son had departed, his face expressing disappointment at a stumble when in sight of the century. There was the reassurance in the rest of the innings that the batting strengths in the post-Tendulkar era is certain to be no less formidable. Cheteshwar Pujara confirmed his penchant for Test centuries made in the classical mould while Rohit Sharma is batting as if he has no care in the world apart from working out how to maximise domination of bowlers and the extraction of runs.
Indeed, this has been Rohit’s fortnight with 209 in an ODI against Australia, 177 on Test debut, against the West Indies followed by his remarkable poise in farming the strike in the company of last man Md. Shami to move from 46 to 100 with a six while his partner had scored just one run. The impression is already apparent that Rohit is the batsman best equipped to take the Tendulkar mantle.
The focus has shifted even more to pointed aggression in the longest format too as Kohli and then Sharma blazed away at near run a ball even as Shillingford’s clever variations brought in a semblance of a fight. The West Indies were a far more determined bowling side on Friday, using their two best bowlers in a long morning spell to deny the landmark century the rest of the world wished to see from the retiring super batsman.
The mini drama within a drama of the battle between Tino Best and Sachin was Test match cricket at its best. The test of character was at its most intense as Best moved the ball at good pace with steep bounce. Twice the master tried to upper cut him and was lucky not to edge strokes that are straight out of any modern batsmen’s repertoire rather than the coaching manual. Once he was so convinced he had had his man that Best alone celebrated the ‘wicket’ while a bemused 12 other players on the field looked on curiously.
Of course, Sachin had to get his own back, which he did when he extra cover drove Best in the over after the one at the end of which he had made that splendid bonding gesture in tapping the bowler on his shoulder in sympathy with his lot. Best didn’t get Sachin but he had done his best to make the fairytale century come to an abrupt end like the Cinderella fable at midnight. Earlier, his straight drive to get his half-century carried the stamp of every bit of authority of the batsman Sachin was in a major part of his 24 years in the Test arena.
The nerveless manner in which Rohit moved to his second Test century suggests Team India has anointed another top class Test performer. Reprieved once in a no-ball check after he had holed out to a tumbling Deonarine at wide long on, Rohit is batting with an assured touch that marks him as the candidate most suited to be the middle order and prime driver of the tradition of the Mumbai school of batting.
He leaves a team that is ready to try and vault to the top of the rankings now that it will be second in the ICC rankings after this Test.
( Source : dc )
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