Landmark missed,but India home

If you ever want to know the equation between a personal landmark and a team win in the most passionate of cricketing countries,then the events that unfolded in Delhi on Wednesday is a classic case study. MS Dhoni’s side beat the West Indies to win the Test by five-wickets — their first win in seven attempts since June — to a warm ovation from the half-empty stands. But while Tendulkar was still en route to his elusive 100th international century,the stadium felt every inch its half-full nature.

No pressure

With another 124 runs to win the first Test on Day Four,Tendulkar strode out to the centre with Rahul Dravid after the most experienced pair in the history of Test cricket had slow blocked India to safety on Tuesday. Now as all eyes strained down Tendulkar’s back,he flicked the pressure away in the first over itself,easing a straying Darren Sammy delivery past the fine-leg fence.

Just to make it an outright Tendulkar day,fate conspired against Dravid by delivering him with the ball of the match. The Fidel Edwards delivery,full and outside off-stump,darted in like a banana,and detonated two stumps. In just the fourth over of the morning,Dravid was gone and the West Indies hoped that the Kotla pitch would live up to its pre-lunch antics.

Apart from the opening day of the Test,five wickets had fallen on each of the morning sessions of the game. Coupled with the fact that out-of-form VVS Laxman had replaced in-form Dravid,one couldn’t blame Sammy if he sniffed a few wickets in the air. But Tendulkar took his and everyone else’s breath away with some exquisite strokes.

He drove Sammy on the up through extra cover off the first ball of the 49th over for a boundary,before cutting his minimal width into the sweeper hoarding,placing him on 46. The next four runs arrived in singles,the last of which was guided to third-man to bring up his 62nd Test fifty. Edwards gave way to Ravi Rampaul,and the resultant drop in speed had Tendulkar hitting the run buffet for several helpings of fours.

He flicked Rampaul’s gentle inswinger to the square-leg rope and followed it up two balls later with a picture postcard cover drive to the fence. While Tendulkar was happy to play the waiting game against Devendra Bishoo’s leg-spin,Rampaul was earmarked for special treatment. In the next over,he opened the face of his blade to a corridor ball,and the leather ricocheted off its meat past the trailing gully fielder.

Dismissing the myth

With spinners operating from both ends,Tendulkar went into overdrive. He watched Marlon Samuels carefully for half an over before killing an old myth — one that claims that Tendulkar doesn’t contribute in run chases — in numbers. As the ball boys fetched leather,Tendulkar became the highest run-getter in the fourth innings of Test cricket,going past Dravid’s 1507 runs in one innings less than his countryman’s 54. When a Bishoo skidder was dispatched with a vintage sweep immediately after,Tendulkar had hit eight boundaries on Wednesday morning,out of a total collection of 41 runs. That,however,was the last one of a near-perfect innings.

As the century blushed shyly into sight — 24 from the remaining target of 43 runs — Tendulkar slipped into farming mode. Micromanaging the situation,he turned down an easy single after Bishoo clipped his pad buckle and scurried well past the keeper. Although Laxman had run half way down the pitch,he was turned back by the master. It was the beginning of the end.

Two balls later,with all eyes on the landmark,including perhaps the batsman’s,Bishoo skidded one short on the bounceless pitch and Tendulkar tried cross-batting a pull stroke. Both Rod Tucker and the vociferous West Indies side believed the low lying ball would have crashed into the leg stump,and the unfulfilled dream of a cricket-loving nation shifted to Kolkata.