The wicket of Ajinkya Rahane on Tuesday prompted a roaring celebration from the spectators gathered here at the Chaudhary Bansi lal Stadium.
They weren’t just loyal supporters, happy to see their home team Haryana take a wicket. They were the people who were fervently waiting to see Sachin Tendulkar in his Mumbai whites one last time. loyalty for the state team was reserved for another day.
The day was about their hero who had just entered the arena of which he has been the king for the past two and a half decades. The loud cheering continued for the next couple of minutes, until Tendulkar, who was given a guard of honour by Haryana players in the middle, didn’t settle in his crease.
Now that the decibel level dropped, it was time for Tendulkar to do the talking. To start with, he struggled, but with his enormous experience, he resisted the inspired Haryana bowling attack on a tricky pitch to remain unbeaten on 55 at stumps on day three. At the end of the day, Mumbai, chasing 240, still needed 39 runs to win this match with all their specialist batsmen back in the pavilion.
Statistically, Haryana need four more wickets to win, which is very much possible on this pitch with assistance from heavy morning weather, but in reality, it is the one and only Tendulkar who stands between the hosts and victory. When Tendulkar walked in, Mumbai were 87 for 2. Mohit Sharma, who dismissed Tendulkar in the first innings and was already bowling from one end, was given an extended 12-over spell by captain Ajay Jadeja. He bowled a probing line, beating Tendulkar on many occasions.
However, it was off-spinner Jayant Yadav who came closest to dismissing the master blaster. In the 46th over, Sachin, in an attempt to unsettle the line and length of the young Haryana spinner, tried to glide the ball to fine-leg but was grabbed by wicketkeeper Nitin Saini. The entire Haryana team was sure that Yadav and Saini had done it for them. Umpire K Bharatan, however, believed otherwise. later, it emerged that Tendulkar had touched the ball. He was at 13 then.
Another big shout came towards the end of the day when Tendulkar missed the length of the ball and tried to sweep a full length ball from Yadav. Bharatan disagreed again.
The pitch that claimed 29 wickets on the first two days, played a lot better on Tuesday. The use of heavy roller and three days of sunshine dried out the juice it contained. Bowlers had to put in more effort to extract bounce and movement. Commendably, the Haryana bowling unit responded well to the challenge. Such discipline, consistency and intensity is a rarity in domestic cricket. Ajay Jadeja’s leadership too needs to be applauded. He set right fields and communicated the plan to the bowlers very well.
But Tendulkar has endured better challenges. On the other end, Kaustub Pawar played a calm and patient innings. He was troubled by an occasional extra bounce from the pitch and was hit on the gloves once. He didn’t flinch. He scored 47 before a superb delivery from Mohit took his edge and landed safely in the wicketkeeper’s gloves. Abhishek Nayar brought aggression to the crease and changed the tempo of the match. But he overdid it and dragged a ball from Ashish Hooda on to his stumps.
Meanwhile, Tendulkar continued at his pace and completed his 196th first class half-century to bring the entire stadium to its feet. But Tendulkar loves to win more than personal achievements. And, on the final morning, when the ball will be doing its bit, the onus will be on him to take the team past the target. Nothing could be better than clinching a win for the team in his farewell match.
Brief Scores
Haryana: 134 and 241 Mumbai: 136 and 201/6 (Sachin Tendulkar no 55, Ajinkya Rahane 40; Mohit Sharma 2/65) by 39 runs at stumps on Day 3.
Here’s a man who knows too much
lahli: Sachin Tendulkar has millions of fans across the world. Everyone claims to be the biggest of all. But if you ask them about his score in a particular match, most of them would fail to answer correctly. He has such a long career that even the statisticians would find it tough.
But not Ajeet Singh Tanwar, a mason from Sikar district of Rajasthan. He has memorised each and every innings of Tendulkar’s 198 Tests. And also the 49 centuries that the master blaster has scored in his 463 ODI appearances. “I can tell you how much Sachin scored in which Test,” he said proudly on Tuesday. To check his claim, he was asked when did Sachin score his 10th ODI century. He promptly replied: “114 against South Africa in 1996 at Mumbai”. A quick stats check proved he was right.
It could have been a lucky guess, so came another question: Sachin’s 15 Test centuryIJ He said 122 against Zimbabwe in 2000 at Delhi. He was again right. Not just centuries, Tanwar remembers all the scores of Tendulkar’s Test and World Cup matches. Tanwar has seen the Master Blaster bat live four times including the ongoing Ranji Trophy game in lahli. For his passion, Tendulkar, on the last two occasions, has given him autographed mementos.
When Tanwar met Tendulkar at Delhi’s Palam ground in last season’s semi-final, he was given a couple of books and a poster, each with Tendulkar’s autograph. On Tuesday too, Tendulkar gave him an autographed t-shirt of the Mumbai Ranji team with ‘To Ajeet, best wishes’ with an autograph on it.
“When I met him this time, I gave him a letter that has a poem written on him by me. He said he will try to ensure that I get to watch his farewell 200th Test match (in Mumbai next month),” Tanwar said. Asked how he is able to remember the scores, he said, “I keep on repeating them every week and then gradually they get stored in my memory.”
Tanwar’s unique ability has earned him a contract with a news channel for programmes in the run-up to Tendulkar’s final two Tests.