Sachin 200-dulkar – The Master
I was a 14 year old teenager, who had just finished his Xth board exams when I watched an innings. An innings I would remember for a long long time. In a bad way.
It was the 1997 India-Pakistan match at the Chepauk stadium. A lot of hype was built around the match in line with yester-year India-Pakistan rivalry. Pakistan had chosen to bat first. I watched the match in rapt attention along with a bunch of cousins. The Indian cricket team had a fearsome frontline slow bowler in Abey Kuruvilla, charging into the dangerous Afridi, while another batsman looked upon nonchalantly at the non-striker’s end. The slowest of slower balls from Kuruvilla fooled Afridi into a false shot and Ganguly at mid-on caught it in his own inimitable fashion. Ecstasy and shouts of yayy resulted in my room. It was shortlived. The non-striker, who went by the name of Saeed Anwar tore into the Indian attack with belligerence. Bowlers came and went (V.Prasad, Anil Kumble, Robin Singh, Sunil Joshi – oh yeah, we had a fantastic attack of slow bowlers back then, along with Abey Kuruvilla who was our main spearhead) but it made no difference to Anwar. He went on to score a century at a fast clip and then with the help of a by-runner scored runs at an increasing pace. At 194, just when I thought and feared he would reach the magic figure, Sachin weaved his magic with the ball. A sweep from Anwar resulted in a top-edge to fine leg and Ganguly caught the ball tumbling down and making a mess of an easy catch, as was his inimitable style.
That day I feared. That day I was relieved.
It was not the magic figure of 200 that mattered. What mattered was India’s name against a particular score. What mattered was Sachin. Let me explain.
Back in the ’90s, India was the team to lose to. The Indian cricket team would invariably snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Those were also the days where everyone and anyone had their records against India. The general feeling was that any team which was out-of-form or was on a continous-losing-streak at that point of time had to just play against India and they would be back to form and winning ways. Such was its reputation. What I didn’t want was any cricketer scoring a 200 in an ODI against India. It was too much of a record to digest; too much of an insult to take. (Yes, it was personal. I was a 14-year old!)
Back in the ’90s, Sachin was the only torchbearer of the Indian cricket team. He scored while everyone around him collapsed in single digits. He was my idol – in fact, it would not be too much of a stretch to say that he was an idol for every Indian of my age. Suffice to say, he had too much of talent and that everyone aspired to be like him, or at the very least admire him. There were two other cricketers with similar talent. One was Lara, the other was Anwar. Lara was a fantastic cricketer, but he was also subject to his quirks. A lot of them. He could score a 375* in a Test match and then get out for four ducks in a row in the next four innings. What he lacked was consistency that the other two possessed (in relative comparison). In my opinion, Anwar was the biggest threat to Sachin. He had the talent, grit, determination and consistency – precise traits of Sachin. I loved and hated him for that. I didn’t want Anwar to score a 200 earlier than Sachin, especially against India. (As a side note, if not for Anwar’s tragedy, it would have been such a treat to watch two brilliant cricketers in a battle for runs and records. As much as I was fascinated by Lara and Sachin, Anwar always remained my favorite cricketer except for when he was playing against India.)
That brings us to today’s moment. The single taken off CK Langeveldt’s bowling, guided wide of point which triggered manic celebrations in Gwalior, India and rest of the world. Bleary-eyed early in the morning, as I watched Sachin bat after he scored 150 runs, I could not help but remember – Anwar’s innings in Chepauk; Sachin’s 186* against NZ in 1999 and his valiant 175 against Australia in 2009. Every run from then on was counted and every boundary was celebrated with a loud cheer. As He crept out of 180s into the nervous 190s (how many times can you say, ‘nervous 190s’ in an ODI?), the excitement died down and fear bolted right in. As He was left stranded on 199 for a couple of overs and Dhoni was going all guns blazing (and the crowd not even bothering to cheer for all his bottom-hand sixes and fours), I was silently praying for his turn to bat and for his 200.
That single off CK Langeveldt did it. The Master had scored his 200. The celebrations began. And they will continue.
Many will write about this innings – about his flicks, pulls and cover drives. Many others will write about statistics, his best scores and how this innings stacked up against all of them. For me, with this innings, I had exorcised my demons. This too is an innings that I would remember for a long long time to come. In a good way. A very good way.
P.S – Saeed Anwar, hope you watched the match. I really hope you did.
Hola!
So, yeah. I apologise.
For what, you ask?
Well, for people who didn’t notice, I apologise for not enlightening your minds with my blogposts 
For people who did notice, I was going through a unique meta-state where ‘everything was happening and nothing was happening, eventually leading to a static null and void state of mind’. It’s probably the longest time I’ve been away from the blog and for no good reason. And hence, accept my apologies. Not that you were eagerly awaiting for an update and all that, but still.
For people who reached out to me personally,
M – Nope, I am very much alive and kicking! And thanks for the profanities. I’ve learnt a few new ones
S – Sorry macha! Oscar nominations will be analysed right here very soon. Fikar not!
A – Never knew you were a keen follower of the blog, am glad! Hope the blog doesn’t disappoint you.
P – No, I am not writing a book and hence ignoring the blog, as is the trend nowadays (I was always bucking-the-trend kindaa guy, you know! 
) However…shh..however, I am in advanced talks to write op-eds with a couple of newspapers (no excuse for this prolonged absence though!). Will keep you posted if they materialize.
Back to blogging then! Yay!
Kicking off the proceedings with – ‘Visesh sutron ke anusaar, ek sansani khez khabar….’
