The Great Indian Juggernaut

In my view, Oxford Dictionary should go ahead and officially alter the meaning of the word, Juggernaut. It should simply read - Juggernaut = Sachin Tendulkar. In the last couple of days, he has managed to scale the 14000 peak in test cricket, a feat that is unmatched and unparalleled. He scored his sixth double century and bagged the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series awards in an absolute humdinger of a test series that concluded today. It is therefore only apt that the master gets a special mention in the hysteria that surrounded the Border-Gavaskar trophy, where the Aussies got demolished royally and catapulted (backwards, that is) to where they rightfully belong, No. 5 in the ICC Test rankings!

I consider myself extremely fortunate as I got the chance to witness the first couple of days of this legendary Bangalore test live in the Chinnaswamy stadium. The moment I reached the stadium, the one thing that I was praying for, the entire Friday night unfolded in front of my eyes. Sachin was going through his routine batting practice right in front of the pavilion, where I was seated. Out came my camera followed by the zoom lens being adjusted to the maximum possible zoom and then my index finger did the talking at the rate of 100 clicks per minute! Sadly, Australia won the toss and decided to bat first but the reception that Sachin got when he walked out to the field had to be seen to be believed. The stadium was reverberating to the chant "Sachin, Sachin", the first long and earnest, the second more critical and stressful. Such was the penetration of those chants and cheers that even the most toughened soul would melt with the sheer intensity of the emotions.

After his breathtaking 98 at Mohali, this time when he came out to bat, the 14K mark was in the minds of one and all. Funnily, the date was 10/10/10, 10 being Sachin's favorite number. He got there in a flash, appreciated the cheers that followed, raised his bat and got back to business, after all the Aussies had made 478 and he had come out at 38/2 with our backs to the wall and Laxman missing from the team due to injury. It was the usual pressure situation for him that he has been sustaining for the last 21 years as only Raina, Pujara and Dhoni followed after him. He played some glorious shots to get to 93 but what transpired then was sheer masterclass. He smashed a six off Hauritz to get to 99 and then walloped another six off the same bowler in true Sehwag style in his very next over to get to his century. Not a bad way to get out of the nineties, eh! Vijay had the best seat in the ground as he watched it all from the other end and the inspiring presence of the master propelled him to his maiden century as well. Tendulkar had done the very same thing a couple of months back with Raina against SL guiding him to a century but this time Vijay was in luck. The Aussies looked in awe as the little master then got to his double. Helmet off, arms aloft, a gaze at the almighty, the celebration was the same but the importance of this innings was paramount.

The second innings saw him directing Pujara to a magnificent 72. After every over, Sachin walked up to Pujara, gave him words of advice and asked him to calm down. Pujara, having dented the Aussie hopes big time, got out to a snorter again but Sachin along with Dravid made sure that India got there in style. Fittingly, Sachin hit the winning runs and his reaction said it all. He raised his arms and ROARED, a rare celebration that was missing even when he reached his century and his double, clearly proving what an Indian victory means to him. It has been 21 years but something still drives him, still motivates him, a certain something which is impossible to fathom. At the age of 37, he has a bradmanesque average of 97.46 in tests this year, nothing short of a miracle. Virender Sehwag in one of his recent press conferences said that it is hard to differentiate between Raina or Sachin in terms of who's making his debut, such is his enthusiasm still. In a recent poll for the Sydney Morning Herald, 84% of the Aussies voted for Sachin being the greatest batsman ever! Sir Viv Richards, Sachin's childhood idol did not even think twice before calling him the greatest ever, stuff that dreams are made of. For all those who said that he's toned down a little or become more conservative in his approach or needs to stop now (I am referring to a certain Ian Chappell's 'Mirror, Mirror' article), you would do well to think before you churn out your gibberish the next time. A World Cup victory is the one thing that eludes him in his otherwise glittering career, hopefully the events in Feb/March'11 will change all of that. I can only pray that the juggernaut continues to roll as fans like me wake up every morning of a test or an ODI expecting blitzkrieg of sorts from Tendulkar. We rejoice when he does something special, expect more the next time if he falls short. Basically, it all boils down to one request - One more century Sachin, please?

India Shining!

Ok, for all those who gave the title a second glance, at the very outset, neither is this one of those feeble attempts to glorify India nor is it an act of childish tomfoolery where they replace shining by whining and think it's funny. I am referring to India's golden day in sports on Tuesday, October 5th. It was one of those rare days where cricket did not hog all the limelight on the news channels inspite of the day being a very historic one for Indian cricket. Apart from the Mohali test, it was a fantastic day for India at the Commonwealth Games with 5 gold medals. It was indeed as one of the channels put it quite fittingly, a Terrific Tuesday!

My friends and family often label me as someone who only gives a damn about cricket and no other sport in India. Let me take this opportunity to make them eat their words as I intend to start out by talking about the CWG. I reached home at around half-past six in the evening and did my customary switching-on-the-television routine expecting to watch the winning scenes at Mohali that I had otherwise missed. Instead, I saw Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, standing on the podium with the gold medals, looking at the tricolor unfurl with the national anthem playing in the background. In my view, there is no greater feeling, this being the epitome of brilliance and pride. Both of them were mouthing the anthem, well aware of the fact that they were going to compete against each other the very next day as opposed to the team event they had just won. It was magnificent to see Bindra congratulate his lesser known partner and acknowledge the fact that Narang was the better shooter that day. Our boxers did us proud too by grabbing a few medals. After months of negativity and the classic Indian blame game at its very best, it was quite heartening to see the games begin in style and with India at the 2nd spot in the medals tally, couldn't have asked for a better start!

Now, moving onto cricket, the miracle at Mohali. Firstly, let me ask all those T20 and ODI obsessed if they can name one game in the recent past that can match the final day intensity of the Mohali test. I know the answer is no, so you would do well to keep your trap shut the next time this topic to scrap test matches arises. I slept on Monday night with a sole thought in my head that only god could save us on Tuesday (I'm sure you know whom I am referring to) so when Tendulkar showed that he's mortal when he arched back and went for the upper cut straight into Hussey's hands, an Indian victory seemed highly unlikely. To make matters worse, Dhoni committed hara-kiri by running himself out, utterly confused by the presence of Raina as a runner for Laxman. In came Ishant at 126/8 and little did he know that he was about to play one of the most important knocks of his life. His 92-ball 31 exhibited sheer grit and determination. The man who made the difference however, was at the other end. Battling a bad back, VVS Laxman once again decided to torment the Aussies, a task he relishes to the fullest. Move over Batman and Superman, our very own Laxman, Australia's old nemesis showed why the Aussies fear him more than Tendulkar, Dravid or Sehwag for that matter. I remember this particular bit quite vividly; we needed 6 runs to win and Laxman wanted to take a single off the second last ball of the over so that he could take strike but Ojha, a little confused and unsure decided to stay put and what transpired was seen to be believed. Laxman was literally shouting at Ojha and pointed his bat at him furiously. I have never ever seen Laxman so emotional and vocal on the field, such was the intensity of the game. As the deficit reduced, horrific memories of Chennai '99 and Hyderabad '09 came to haunt my mind, surely this couldn't go down that road again. Deja vu striked, Tendulkar, with a bad back had defied all odds and done the unthinkable in Chennai 11 years back but had fallen so painfully short. However, a couple of balls and a few byes later, India had pulled off one of the finest victories ever. Bhajji went crazy, Laxman looked up at the sky and smiled - his back pain had transformed into our backbone, Tendulkar jumped like a 5-year old, the Mohali crowd was lucky to see it all. A glorious test match had just concluded and India had stamped their No. 1 test team authority yet again. Mr. Ponting blamed Bollinger's unavailability and mentioned that Ojha was wrongly given not-out in the last over but nobody cared. In the flamboyant words of the legendary Linkin Park, In the end, it doesn't even matter.

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