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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sachin Tendulkar's (yet another) Everest moment

Taken at SCG, 3rd Day, Australia vs India, 4th...Image via Wikipedia
7th March 1987 - Sunil Gavaskar reached 10,000 runs in test cricket - he remarked on the occasion saying that there will be many more batsmen who will scale the peak but everyone will remember who scaled the Everest first.

24th February 2010 - The ODI Everest of double-century in an innings was scaled by Tendulkar. The 200 mark will be breached again in the age of T20s but everyone in the cricketing fraternity (players, viewers, non-believers) will remember this moment.

And what a moment it was!!! It took me one full day to scale back my emotions after I saw the match (on highlights sadly). The shot-making was wonderful, to say the least. Any number of adjectives are less for the legend.

Following the match on Google (with the 'Latest' trending - showing the twitter updates with the word 'cricket' on) - was quite interesting - more 'colorful' than Cricinfo, in fact.

One point to note in the followers was that after the first few runs scored by SRT, the followers were in fact, expecting the double century from Sachin!!! What a prediction? And how correct it turned out to be!!!

Prem writes about other tweets of mention in his article today but those were just the tip of the iceberg. The observations that the Twitverse came up were really enjoyable. It was similar to watching the innings with a 'live' crowd.

In other sites, John Stern (Wisden Magazine) thanks SRT for his knock yesterday. Nasser Hussain in fact, went ahead and told Sky Sports News he believes Sachin Tendulkar may be even better than the great Don Bradman


What else can I say? The man seemed to be playing his shots from memory but still doing the math in his mind to find the gaps in the field. The shots, especially the ones where he turned a ball outside off to the square-leg during the Batting PowerPlay, were incredible.


The fact that he was on the field after playing 50 overs was a sign of his endurance. The stroke-play he matched Yusuf Pathan was testimony to his shot-making. The passing of the baton (of score-making) in the climax yesterday to MS Dhoni showed that he was not interested in statistics alone. In fact, he wanted to play another innings for 50 overs (as he told Ravi Shastri after the match) - talk about intensity.



A 175 against Australia and this 200 against South Africa is clear that the man can hit against all the top-sides today and no less competitive. It is a good sign that he has been rested for the final ODI - this tactic will ensure that he remains fresh for the significant battles ahead. The way he has been overcoming all the black-marks (if there were any) in his career means that India will win the 2011 World Cup next year - Let us hope it is true.


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