Tendulkar gets elusive double ton, misses Gavaskar’s mark

Whatever it is called the clinical precision of a genius or the wreckage wrought by a maverick deep down, all those who spent the sultry Saturday afternoon at the stadium will regret the opportunity the maestro miss the highest individual score by an Indian — 236 by Sunil Gavaskar.

Other than that, there were a host of hits for the hosts. The drudgery, meanwhile, went on for the tourists. Giving Tendulkar company was Saurav Ganguly, who got his seventh Test ton, while a rare late flourish helped India declare their first inning at 583 for seven wickets. And after more than three sessions of play, when New Zealand took the field, they were18-1.As the play ended on Friday, the word had spread — Tendulkar and Ganguly were in full flow and Motera was the place to be in on Saturday. And with the stadium’s long and frequent rendezvous with history, it was foolhardy to ignore this piece of sound advice.

It was a display of two different form of fine art. A left-right combination have left many an opponent on ropes earlier also. But, perhaps, not with such ruthless elan. Ganguly, who seems to carry a highly scientific compass hidden somewhere in his bat, made inroads in the densely guarded off-side field with uncanny accuracy. If he was grace then Tendulkar was power reincarnate. The duo’s precision was a bonus.

With the wicket still hard as nails, the Kiwis had the `no more please’ look about them. But the two had bigger goals in mind, and mercy was nowhere on agenda. Ganguly and Tendulkar seemed like bulls ready to enter a record shop. The left-hander’s first milestone of the day was reaching his ton and then, as his association with Tendulkarmatured, they bettered their own fourth-wicket stand. The 281-run stand was more than the 256 they accumulated against Sri Lanka in 1997.

The combination was finally broken by Nathan Astle, who, like Ganguly, appears to carry the `match-breaker’ tag on his sleeves. A mistimed on-drive was caught by Dion Nash at mid-on. But Tendulkar was on a double mission besides the big picture of the team cause at the back of his mind, he was focused on personal milestone as well.

He hardly raised his bat to the thunderous ovation when he reached 150. A mere smile at non-striker Ajay Jadeja was the sole expression after surpassing his personal best of 179. Only the figure 200 could have made Tendulkar happy. As he took a single off Vettori, the crowd got the roof down. The skipper thanked the heavens, crowd and teammates in that order and Motera once again kept it’s date with history. But disaster struck soon as Tendulkar was caught by Nash off Daniel Vettori. Tendulkar later dedicated his first double century toelder brother Ajit who has been a source of inspiration to him throughout his career.

Vettori had earlier taken care of Jadeja and M S K Prasad who, in an effort to step up the run-rate, gifted their wickets to the young spinner. India eventually declared after the tail joined the party at the middle for a while.

New Zealand spinners, probably making their last appearance in Tests in this series, seemed to be a disappointed lot. They appeared like tourists, done in by some shady travel agent, who promised them brochures of sandy wickets but avoided the details about batsmen who grew up on a staple diet of spin.

SCOREBOARD

India (1st innings)
Debang Gandhi c Parore b Crains 6 (29b, 38m, 1×4)
Sadagopan Ramesh c Spearman b Harris 110 (169b, 228m, 13×4)
Rahul Dravid c Parore b Vettori 33 (64b, 87m, 6×4)
Sachin Tendulkar c Nash b Vettori 217 (343b, 494m, 29×4)
Saurav Ganguly c Nash b Astle 125 (252b, 323m, 20×4)
Ajay Jadeja b Vettori 13 (48b, 36m, 2×4)
MSK Prasad b Vettori 2(12b, 13m)
Anil Kumble not out 27 (55b, 62m, 4×4)
Javagal Srinath 33 (55m, 36b, 3×4).
Extras 17 (4b, 7lb, 6nb).
Total (for 7 wickets declared in 167 overs, 682 minutes) 583.
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-102, 3-182, 4-463, 5-502, 6-518, 7-521.

Bowling
Crains 24-5-82-1
Nash 28-6-86-0
Vettori 57-5-200-4
Astle 17-2-55-1
Harris 17-3-64-1
Wiseman 24-2-85-0.
New Zealand (1st innings)
Gary Stead batting 11 (37b, 47m, 2×4)
Mathew Horne c Dravid b Kumble 2 (24b, 29m)
Daniel Vettori batting 0 (5b, 16m)
Extras 5 (4b, 1lb).
Total (for one wicket in 11 overs, 47 minutes) 18.
Fall of wicket: 1-13.

Bowling
Srinath 4-0-8-0
Prasad 3-2-4-0
Kumble 4-3-1-1.