Tendulkar: A special ton because it helped India win
Anand Vasu - 31 March 2001
It is sometimes said that Sachin Tendulkar is not at his best when in good
nick. But surely there's no such thing as someone's form being too special
for his own good? In the first two one-dayers of the five match series,
Tendulkar played flashy cameos, going hard at every ball bowled at him and
eventually fell short of the big score. In the third one-dayer at Indore
however, Tendulkar began tentatively, not middling the ball as well as he
would have liked. Weathering the lack of a sublime touch, Tendulkar went on
to make 139, an innings that set up an Indian victory by 118 runs. But it
was not just any century. When Tendulkar pushed a Shane Warne leg break to
mid off, sauntered a single and took his personal score on to 34, the
little maestro from Mumbai became the first man to cross 10,000 runs in
limited overs cricket.
"I knew it was coming but I wasn't really thinking about it," Tendulkar
told scribes after the match. Perhaps that explains the rather muted
celebration from Tendulkar. The crowds at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
were, in contrast, well alive to the magnitude of the moment. The roar that
went up was tremendous, the standing ovation heartfelt. "I basically just
wanted to hang in there and that's what I did. It paid off at the end of
the day." It certainly did. Tendulkar spent a total of 197 minutes at the
crease.
"Initially the ball came onto the bat very well. At that time I went for my
shots. As time went on, the wicket played lower and slower. I had to adapt
my game. I changed my plans as the game went on and that made the
difference," said Tendulkar, speaking about the pitch, which looked a
beauty of a batting track from a distance. The look in Tendulkar's eyes
betrayed a sense of relief. Yet, Tendulkar was keen not to sound too
emotional or jubilant.
As the press conference drew to a close, Tendulkar had to concede that this
knock was special. "A hundred is a hundred, every one of them makes you
happy. But this one is extra special simply because it helped India win,"
said Tendulkar. That summed up Tendulkar's mood aptly.
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