Sachin's moment in History !!

Dileep Premachandran wrote in crickinfo “Years from now, if you're an Indian cricket aficionado, they might ask you where you were at 4:45pm on a wintry December evening at the Ferozshah Kotla” when history was being made by the little master Sachin. Well. I was listening to the audio in sify.com at Dayton when suddenly Sanjay Agarwal became tongue tied and failed to describe the event in a manner that befits the enormity of it. 35 test 100s !! hmmm. From a whole generation, who grew up idealizing Sachin and having watched most of his centuries, I had to say, I was hoping that I would have been there to watch it live. After going through the media reports and the video highlights of each of his 13 fours and 1 six, atleast 5 times, I have to say that it was a masterly, if not a pretty or fluent innings, considering the circumstances; Sachin’s own form, recovery from the operation and the turn of events during day 1 of the 2^nd test. Sachin had to will his way through, especially out of the shackles in his own mind rather than those imposed by an ordinary Lanka attack.

I am pretty sure, that Dilhara played a trick by intently not releasing the ball, when Sachin was on 99 and it had an effect too when Sachin’s nervous edge just fell short of the 1^st slip.

Sachin, it seems had urged his team mates later during celebrations ,that 'let us win the next world cup'. Well !! If there is one person, who can motivate every one, it has to be Sachin. That will be a fitting tribute to a glorious career that began at the tender age of 16.

Couple of quick points on day 1:

· Rahul’s act of opening the batting with Gambhir was truly an unselfish act. He could have easily asked someone else to go but choose the option of going in at no.2 himself. He has just recovered from a fever and such acts are really going to separate the men from the also rans.

· VVS stamped his class with a gem of an innings and some of his boundaries were just sizzling. He was unlucky to get a near unplayable doosra; otherwise, he never looked like getting out, after the initial overs. I hope that this innings will once and for all silence the mis-informed critics of him.

There were numerous delays like ball changes, wet field, sight screen problems – all typical of a DDCA still struggling to get its act right and with all that, I think India ended atleast 50 runs short on a day, where they should have scored at 4 an over from 75 overs. Ganguly’s long period of hibernation and Sachin’s own lack of fluent rhythm, till he suddenly woke up with those 3 4s in a Murali over, also contributed to a dreary day.

So..What is next? Ideally, you will expect India to be off the blocks and start scoring at 4 an over on day 2; but, I have followed lndian cricket long enough to have no such ambition. My initial guess is that Indian scoring rate is going to be too listless and somnolent (unless Dhoni does something big in double quick time) for a result in this match and in all likelihood, unless there is a stupendous Kumble effort, this is a draw written all over, especially with dew induced delays of morning and curtailed evenings of a North Indian winter.
Pic : AP