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It is very unfortunate that rains had to play spoilsport after having watched some breathtaking moments of cricket on Friday between India and the West Indies. It saddens me that all of India's efforts went down the drain.
However, the match will be remembered for a splendid Sachin Tendulkar innings. Coming back into the thick of things from a long lay-off, he hit a marvellous unbeaten century, only to end up on the losing side. But no one can take away the fact that the little genius has come back, and how.
Every moment of Sachin's innings was wonderful, right from the beginning till the very end. Especially the way he paced his innings, as he made a patchy start to the day, but he must have known it, that it wasn't going to be easy out there. His first 50 runs showed that, but he didn't let it weigh on him.
But the moment Sachin got into his flow, he was impossible to stop. He looked imperious from then on, especially during the last 40 runs or so that he scored. To play on a comeback match and that too on a wicket which was not the best by any standards, the dismissals of Dravid, Sehwag and Dhoni only reiterate that fact, but Sachin showed the cricketing world that he is back to score plenty more runs.
The wicket was not at all good to bat and even the Australians struggled at the start of their innings the other day. Even the rest of the Indian batsmen did not impress, including captain Rahul Dravid, who struggled for the time he batted. But such is the quality of Sachin that the moment he walks into the crease, he knows how to adjust to the conditions and the situation. He showed not only the class batsman that he is, but also the 16 years of experience that he carries along.
The Indians showed their mettle though, as they set a daunting target for the West Indies, a score that even Australia couldn't reach. I was overall happy with the performance that India put in, because to score 309 runs on a track like that is in no way easy.
But I'll come back to Sachin's innings, because an innings like this are hard to come by. His tenacity to fight it out in the middle in the initial overs was indeed pleasurable. It also shows that his hunger to get big scores is still there. He timed the ball magnificently, found the gaps and was not afraid of being cheeky on occasions.
India would have certainly gone on to win the match had it been completed, as it was a matter of only a couple of wickets which would have taken only two deliveries. We saw the other day too, the way Australia tightened the screws on West Indies and they fumbled under pressure after losing some quick wickets in succession.
Gayle played his usual self, but the Indians got him at a crucial juncture. Lara wasn't looking comfortable at the crease. The bite that Harbhajan was getting on a soggy night would have been enough to do him in. Lara would have definitely tried to dominate Harbhajan, a thing that he does when he is not very confident at the crease, and that would have given him the idea that he should hang the ball a little bit more or slip one of his quicker ones. Sarwan was impressive for the time he batted, but I'm sure the Indians would have worked out a strategy for him too.
But the Indian bowlers should have learnt from the mistakes that their counterparts did. On the contrary, the Indian bowlers too were wayward, tried to bowl fast and totally neglected the basics. Most of the deliveries bowled by the medium pacers were either too short or too full, and the result was a blinding start that the Windies got to their innings. It is a simple theory to bowl wicket to wicket that should have been employed by the Indian bowlers. The only exception though was Munaf Patel, who focussed only on line and length and got rewarded with the wicket of Gayle.
The winner at the end of course was the rain, and of course the Duckworth Lewis system. I can't seem to understand why the system still exists. It is probably the most horrible way of interpreting scores and above all, matches. No way can a layman understand the intricacies of the method, let alone the cricketers out there. And it is certainly India's misfortune as it is always India who are on the losing side whenever the rains are around. But now on paper, it will only say that West Indies won the match and India lost, the bitter fact. It shouldn't have been the case.
Coming back to cricket, India now have to win the game against Australia to be on equal footing in the points table. And Australia would not be going easy against India, as they are aware of dangerous their opponents in blue could be. India will have to fight it out in the middle to ensure that they don't fall behind in the race to the final.
Yet, the promise the game gave was that Sachin is back, and looks even better than before. It is a curious mix of youth and experience that Sachin is displaying at the moment. The innings that come to my mind when I compare this knock of his, are the consecutive centuries at Sharjah in '98.
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