Call it the nervous 90s syndrome or the 42nd century jinx. It was as if designed. He just had to get out in the 90s, even on the very day he completed his 18th year in international cricket. This time Sachin Tendulkar fell short by just three runs of what could have been his 42nd century, sixth time in this year and for the 16th occasion in his long, illustrious career. Somehow, the master-blaster gets stuck at this barrier. Watching him bat at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium was a sublime experience as he showed classic touch. His timing, footwork and the shots — everything was as they should be. He fashioned his knock with sixteen exquisite hits to the fence, finding the boundary easily and on all sides of the wicket. The third ball he faced, fourth of the innings, he dispatched Shoaib Akhtar to the square-leg boundary. Then, in the sixth over, he hit Sohail Tanvir, first through point and then through square-leg. But the best shot came, when he drove Iftikhar Anjum straight for a boundary. It was a full-pitched delivery, Tendulkar stood tall and punched the ball with the full face of the blade. Three overs later, he completed his fifty off 49 balls with two back-to-back fours off Umar Gul. The Pakistani bowler was guilty of bowling short on both the occasions, and was slapped through the cover and point regions. In the 22nd over Shahid Afridi got some special treatment — going for three successive fours. The stage seemed perfect for him to break the jinx. When on 5, he also completed his 27,000th ODI run. But then the inevitable happened. Gul brought the curtains down on a superb knock and the 30,000-strong crowd fell silent. Disappointment was also on Tendulkar’s face. The delivery landed outside the off, and Tendulkar pushed at it, bat away from the body, only managing to get an inside edge into the stumps. India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni later summed up the essence of the situation when he said: “When Sachin got out the atmosphere in the dressing room was very sad. All teammates were sad. He missed seven centuries this year (including one in Tests). Many players retire from the stage without scoring seven centuries. And he missed so many. So you can understand. “Maybe in the next match,” as Dhoni said.
