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India 275 for 4 (Tendulkar 134, Azharuddin 58, Fleming 2-47, Kasprowicz 2-48) beat Australia 272 for 9 (S Waugh 70, Lehmann 70, Prasad 2-32, Kanitkar 2-58, Agarkar 2-61) for six wickets
Is the sport at its best when it casts the unpredictable? Or does it reach its height when a genius appears and makes the improbable seem completely predictable? It would be the most cheesy script in the film: our hero beats against his skin against the best team in the world to drag his most fighting side to the end of a tournament where they meet the same opponents and beat them thanks to another masterful effort of our hero. , who, wait, is celebrating his 25th birthday.
When it happens in real life, it’s awesome.
Two days after his 143 amid swirling sand, Sachin Tendulkar scored a hundred other majestic in a chase, to almost single handedly put the cup of the three Sharjah nations in the hands of India. More than that, the quality of his batting ensured that this tournament, a triple series with a cola flavor in an ocean of a triple series with a cola flavor, will transcend its immediate context and will live in memory far beyond the careers of those involved in that.
Decades from now, the highlight of this tournament will fill our television screens every time April 24 arrives, taking away the joyous, never-getting-old faces of fans who, as Tony Greig put it two days ago, they danced in the hallways. We will continue talking about Shane Warne going around the gate, and Tendulkar saluting the movement by jumping from its fold, exposing the three stumps and throwing the ball out of the tracks and more than six years. Deck hits, rear foot shots, paddle hits, direct hits by Damien Fleming and Warne, respectively, which left Sourav Ganguly and Steve Bucknor, respectively, on their backs; These will remain engraved in our memories.
But for all of that, Tendulkar has scored, and will score, hundreds far more challenging than this 25th birthday party. Australia’s attack contained just three front-line players, leaving bandits Tom Moody, Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh to fill at least two-fifths of your bowling fee. During certain stretches of the Tendulkar innings, all he had to do was milk these minor bowlers to release the deepfield players, singles Australia was happy to give away in the low intensity waiting game that Often they are the average inputs of the ODI inputs.
The lack of true wicket bearers in Australia, aside from Warne and Fleming, who, incidentally, were celebrating their 28th birthday, forced them to play this waiting game and hope that India would crumble under the pressure of the scoreboard. This could have happened if India had lost a pair of early wickets or, as they did in the last round robin game two days ago, a pair of quick wickets midway through their chase, but they didn’t, like Ganguly, Nayan Mongia. – Once again rose to number 3 – and Mohammad Azharuddin all played helpful hands around Tendulkar. Without those wickets, Australia’s goal, 273, was challenging, but not enough given its bowling resources, and given Tendulkar’s amazing form.
Australia could have set a bigger target if they Groups of wickets are not lost at inopportune moments. There were three in the first six innings of his innings, when lingering Venkatesh Prasad and cunning but much more erratic Ajit Agarkar managed to get the ball to nibble on a slightly damp surface. There were two more after a 59-run fourth-wicket partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Michael Bevan, both against the run. Gilchrist overcame a loose cut from subsidiary Hrishikesh Kanitkar part-time, Bevan was left without him after a confusion that left him and Steve Waugh on the same end.
Having five losses with 23 overs left didn’t hurt Australia right away, like Steve Waugh and the brilliant inventive. Darren Lehmann put in 103 of just 96 balls, clinically milled part-time workers and took his toll every time Agarkar, who still showed signs of groin strain keeping him out of India’s previous game, got it wrong online. or length. But even Australia’s exaggerated batting depth, the flip side of playing just three front-line players, was put to the test when Waugh was ranked 43rd. Lehmann continued: The highlight of his innings was a couple of limits. back-to-back against Anil Kumble, a muscular six on the leg side that followed, making room to carve a mid-stump ball through the point, but his dismissal by a Ball 70 of 59, followed by Damien’s unnecessary escapade Martyn ended the chances of an explosive Australian final. Only 67 came out of their last ten overs.
However, India has always been a nervous hunter. Prior to this game, they had only won five of the 27 ODIs that had a goal of 270 or more set for them. His nerves must have calmed down when Ganguly hit the first two balls of India’s innings to the limit, even though Australia kept him under control and kept him on strike. When he fell into a poorly controlled jerk for 23 of 42 balls, Tendulkar had only faced 11 balls.
But those 11 balls had already whetted the appetite of the packed crowd, which contained impulses of pristine time, as well as an early lucky moment: an attempt to push by the arms, in front of Fleming, who lost the stump in half. inch – that tells everyone this could be hitter’s day.
And went. Tendulkar put Moody under pressure as soon as he entered, throwing a good-length ball to a limit over midfield, and a direct hit from four from Mongia at the end of the over-the-14th forced Steve Waugh to remove his all terrain. Moody’s replacement Mark Waugh received the Tendulkar treatment, with three fours in his second and third overload: an inside-out loft on an additional deck, a leg look and a paddle sweep, forcing another change.
At the other extreme, Warne was overcoming his efforts without causing Tendulkar or Mongia to worry unduly, and a change to surround the wicket in sixth place further reduced his threat. Fleming’s return brought Mongia’s immediate wicket, but relented after just two attacks, which Tendulkar viewed with almost exaggerated care, after which Tendulkar and the new man Azharuddin milked Moody and Steve Waugh’s mid-tempo twin attack by six straight straight. The required rate rose above six and above in this time, but it meant little without the wickets falling.
Then came the acceleration: there was a limit on each from 35 to 38, and then the single that brought Tendulkar to his hundred, his 15th in ODI. Then came a four-legged pair of Tendulkar in the Warne Final, the 42nd – unstoppable units on the ground and through the deck – a fitting finale to an extended contest that Tendulkar has thoroughly mastered for the past two months, beginning in Brabourne in the last week of February.
Tendulkar’s greatest aggression in this phase also made him play and miss four slower Moody balls, but this was his day and nobody could do anything about it. As if to emphasize that point, he hit Moody for a consecutive six that reduced the equation to 39 of 43 balls. This party was made and dusted off.
When Tendulkar finally departed, it was a surprise to Javed Akhtar’s lbw decision: the ball, delivered by Michael Kasprowicz from the wicket, was thrown off the leg stump and the stump would have been missed. Tendulkar’s 143 two days ago also ended with a questionable arbitration decision. It was appropriate, in a way; Australia might get their wicket, every now and then, but to borrow lines written years ago in praise of another Mumbai hitter, they couldn’t quite get it out.
