Tendulkar’s moment arrives early, does not disappoint

At a little after 3.30pm, Murali Vijay began the walk back to the dressing room, having popped a catch to the fielder at short-leg. The umpire beckoned him to wait a moment as he spoke with his colleague to check that Shane Shillingford had not overstepped.

The first replay showed that the ball was legitimate and the hum that had kept the Wankhede Stadium buzzing morphed into a full-throated roar, as though a switch had been thrown, and Sachin Tendulkar walked down the steps from the dressing room to the playing arena for what might be his last innings in Test cricket.

As soon as Tendulkar crossed the ropes, the crowd, not quite a capacity 32,000, but getting there, was on its feet, and the West Indies team lined up in a guard of honour, bookended by the umpires.

Tendulkar walked through, acknowledging his peers and the cheers from the stands, bent down to touch the pitch in a mark of respect and got down to the business of taking guard. It was 3.33pm, a perfectly symmetrical time, one that could have been picked out as auspicious by a priest or astrologer, and the hour had come.

Tendulkar’s weapon of choice, the heavy blade, had been modified specifically for this game, the grip and maker’s label styled in the tricolour of the Indian flag.

Shillingford went back to the top of his mark, and if he did not have Sir Don Bradman and Eric Hollies on his mind, there were certainly enough people who did.

Off the first ball he faced, a flat, quick delivery that was sharply spun, Tendulkar smothered Shillingford into the leg side even as optimistic cries of “catch it!” were drowned out by the chant of “Sa-chin! Sa-chin!” Tendulkar denied West Indies a Hollies reprise off the third ball he faced, smearing Shillingford down to backward square-leg for a single.

If there were nerves, and perhaps moistness of the eye, Tendulkar settled very quickly, a racy start from India’s openers and a poor West Indian first-innings total allowing him to play at whatever pace he desired.

Shillingford helped things along, dropping short and allowing Tendulkar to rock back and muscle the ball through point for his first boundary of the day. A cover drive that sent the ball all along the turf followed off the spinner and Shannon Gabriel produced a full, wide delivery that invited a repeat.

Before the crowd could settle back into their seats, Tendulkar had 16 at better than a run-a-ball and a day’s play that had been held hostage by poor cricket from the West Indies had come to life.

Cheteshwar Pujara had the best seat in the house, and a man with his appetite for crease occupation was never likely to do anything to jeopardise this. When Tendulkar returned to the pavilion, having spent an hour and 22 minutes at the crease for his unbeaten 38, India had motored to 157 for 2, and trailed by only 25 runs. Pujara had 34 to his name, and the second day was set up perfectly to be a Sachin day.

West Indies, who were put in to bat, however, threatened to pull the rug from under the mother of all celebrations, not by besting their opponents, but by surrendering meekly. On a pitch that had good carry, but was expected to ease out, and a bit of turn, the West Indies top order did well to get to 140 for 3, despite Chris Gayle’s third successive failure in the series. Kieran Powell, who was the beneficiary of some Indian fielding largesse in which three catches were grassed, made a steady 48 at the top of the order.

But, just as they put themselves in a position to heed their captain’s demand of batting long, at least 120 overs, in the first innings, the West Indies batsmen spontaneously combusted. Poor shot selection was the chief culprit and, apart from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, playing in his 150th Test, none of the other batsmen could claim to have been undone by unplayable deliveries.

Darren Sammy’s exquisitely horrible slog off the second ball he faced took Ravichandran Ashwin to 100 Test wickets. Getting there in only his 18th Test, Ashwin was comfortably the fastest Indian to the mark, beating Kumble’s 24 Tests, and overall.

The chief beneficiary of the West Indian lower-order collapse, in which seven wickets fell for only 42 runs, was Pragyan Ojha, who ended with 5 for 40 from 11.2 overs of imaginative left-arm spin.

“This Test match belongs to Sachin. It’s a special one for all of us,” Ojha said at the end of the day. “Definitely, we all want him to get a lot of runs in this special match and I don’t mind getting overshadowed. I would like to dedicate this five-wicket haul to Sachin.”

The entire West Indies effort lasted 55.2 overs and yielded 182, exactly the kind of first-innings score that results in matches not lasting the distance.

On a day when they cheered the fall of the first two Indian wickets, India’s fans will not complain about West Indies’ fragility. All eyes were on one man, and he did not disappoint.

Anand Vasu is managing editor of Wisden India.

sports@thenational.ae