hi folks...writing a blog after a long time.........was i really busy???Well....actually i was too lazy to put myself on the chair and type this out....:D
So our topic of discussion today????
Hmmmmm...Let me c........
One thing that prbly catches the attention of most guys,next to girls of course(That's a given if u r in an estrogen starved campus :D ),is cricket.....Over the years cricket has evolved into a religion,an obsession.The first thing that strikes us wen we talk about sports is cricket and half the ppl dunno that hockey is supposed to be our national sport....(I came to know of it only yesterday :D).....
Cricketers bravely contest in the elections and win hands down without any prior knowledge about politics...thats bcoz of the enormous popularity that cricket has given them.........Its something like Pamela anderson becoming a mathematics professor just bcoz she knows a lot about curves :D........
If there is one thing that can unite all the people of this country without any discrimination on the basis of religion,its only cricket.........Not even mallika sherawat can do this....trust me :)
So do these cricketers deserve the kind of adulation that they receive from the people?????If anyone deserves it,its none other than the mastero himself....The great sachin ramesh tendulkar........The pride of the Indian batting line up...........With close to 40,000 international runs under his belt,he is set to make a record none can ever break........
So Wat's so special about this post????You might think that its just another crazy fan of sachin worshipping his batting......You are wrong there......This was the innings that made me just another fan among the millions of fans he has acquired...........
Innocent unless proven guilty.......My case is similar
People used to think that sachin was the fulcrum of the Indian line up......And whenever he hit a century ppl were praising it so much.......I used to scorn at them....I thought "Its absolutely normal for a batsman to hit century...that's why they are paid so much,you god damn ppl......."
Wat i failed to realise is the fact that even though lots of other ppl in the Indian line up itself have a lot of talent ,its his style and technique that everyone fall for....Take dravid for example...he has got his own bit of talent........You bowl any ball at him and you can be sure that the ball doesn't cross the 30 yard circle........
There are many innings that showed his class,now that i think about it......Take his 186 against NZ.......It was a run riot by Sachin and Dravid against a hapless NZ bowling attack.....Then there was his 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup........An incident i remember is that when akram was bowling,Sachin hit a lofted shot towards mid on..it was a plan to get sachin out......but razzaq had pre anticipated the ball and he moved forward a bit too much and ended up missing the catch....It was then when Akram shouted "Do you know whose catch you have missed?????"
That's what sachin means to India and wat he means to the rest of the world.....
What makes highly feared is the fact that he is really versatile....He can be a demon hooker.he can be a slogger and he can play the supporting role and he can also accompany Dravid in testing the bowlers' patience by not letting any ball cross the bowler.......
Guess am testing all your patience by not even talking about the topic i wanted to talk about :D:D:D
Well.......It was a regular coll day that day and i came to my room after a toiling day only to see Australia blast the heck outta Indian bowling attack....I moaned in despair...."Another thrashing....Whenever will these guys have some shame and start playing well?????" i thought......
The target set was 351 and India started well and reached 66 before the monkey in shewag took over and made him chip one straight down the fielders throat.........Tendulkar started scratchily in the beginning..nudging a few.......As time moved on he grew in confidence.......But so did the Australian bowlers as wickets kept tumbling at the other side..The worst part was that the bowling attack consisted of all fresh faces....it was like playing with an Australin b- team....And still we managed to create a fiasco out of it...It was finally at a score of 162/4 and an asking rate of nearly 8,that brought the pair of Sachin and raina together........I would like to add a piece of word here about Australian fielding......They fielded as if every run as the run between victory and defeat....and Pointing especially.....man he was jumping around the field like he had never done before.......I have guess that he thought he was in a gymnastics competition and not a cricket ground..........But nothin could stop sachin...it was simply his day.....he drove the ball,flicked it,paddle swept it.....he could just do no mistake.....and his consecutive sixes straight down the ground showed that on that day Sachin meant business.....And like a caring father,Sachin mentored Raina and slowly Raina started to open up.....With both of them firing on all cylinders India hoped that they could script a historic win....The Australians looked an upset bunch....
Once micheal Kasprowich said after Sachin's magnificent knock against te=hem in Sharjah" We dint lose to the team India.We lost to a person called Sachin"
Raina paced a beautiful innings as his mentor thrashed the aussie bowling apart at the other side
Raina's innings was one of balance...He lofted the ball in the air when reqd and maintained a calm composition......But when he lofted it ,it sailed way past the boundaries.....With raina playin the second fiddle,Sachin was a happy man......
Ricky pointing????
Well he would have been consistently reminded about the Johannesburg incident where Gibbs single handedly chased down the target of 434.....No...Sachin was in a better form.......Sachin was like a raging fire.........But sachin's happiness would be short lived as Raina would loft one too many in the air to offer a simple catch to the keeper.........But Sachin kept on attacking on all fours and when the scoreboard said 19 reqd of 17,Sachin had done almost all the work.....He attempted the lofted paddle sweep only to be decieved by a slower ball and the ball ended up right in the hands of the fielder.......With 19 to win off 16 balls,India miraculously managed to make a complete mess of it and lose the match.....Ultimately Australia's dedication and commitment paid off...A knock of 175,prbly his best ever considering the situation wasnt enough......he rose to the occassion and it was simply wasted....Wat an innings......I had the previlege of watching one the gratest ever batsman play one of his greatest ever knocks..........Memories of the 1999 test match against pakistan returned to haunt him as India was in a similar situation when sachin got out that time too......16 reqd with 3 wickets in hand and they managed to lose it..................
Most of us went to bed that night crying........Prbly sachin himself was crying......What an innings and what a waste it became......
