And he leaves us with a knock of 74!!!

976th BLOG POST -->>

       

    I know I am late but this had to come. I am sure like me, everyone of you are still not able to move on since watching Sachin Tendulkar's farewell speech, last innings, last celebrations and him coming back to pitch and kissing it with his hands. As Sachin has himself said, the last 7 days have been a fairy tale moment for all of us. We always wanted our legends to leave us with a blast and not with a sad heart. Though we couldn't do it for Ganguly, Laxman and Dravid but we got chance to give our best to the Master Blaster and we send him off with lots of respect. The way every minute detail about Sachin and his life got discussed almost everywhere, it seemed as if we are back in 1990s and Sachin Tendulkar's career has just started. But it saddened us the most every time we realized that he is going to play his last in few hours. Finally he played and scored a decent 74 runs which is no less than a century for us. Some things are scripted above and this last inning has been one of them. I was seeing a news channel last day and found that out of all the prominent players, only Sachin Tendulkar has been able to score 74 runs in his last test match otherwise Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly, Inzamam, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and even Sir Don Bradman were not been able to score 74 even after summing up their scores of both the innings. Even while exiting from the game forever, Master Blaster goes with a wonderful show.

            As soon as Sachin Tendulkar's wicket fell and Virat Kohli came in, right on the first ball, he hit a Four. It was like the whole scenario of past 24 years and upcoming 15 years i.e. Sachin Tendulkar leaving the field and Virat Kohli entering to be the next Master Blaster with a hitting four. :-) The sadness of the legend leaving the sport has been such that even after Darren Sammy got him out, he didn't celebrate. All the West Indies player kept standing where they were and didn't make the moment look cheap and awkward. Sachin Tendulkar's farewell speech purely described what an Indian man and culture is. His speech showcased family values, humility, emotions and culture. Not for a single moment did he say that he has achieved enough. He just kept thanking others as if it was his family's achievements and not his. What a man! How many of us can purely dedicate success to our family without applauding ourselves even for a single time? And that's where Sachin Tendulkar gets differentiated from us, the human beings. :-)

           

 I have written many Blogs till date but the most posts that I have written is on Sachin Tendulkar. Writing about him does not satisfy a writer in me. I just feel like writing about him continuously day after day and tell people how big an institution he is. I remember the day he scored 200*. How special that day was. Respect for him increased by heaps and bounds that day. After that when he scored a century even in a format like IPL, that was as joyous as any other happiness that a sport can give to its disciple. I never ever imagine Sachin Tendulkar hitting a century in a format which is made up for youngster who are young and energetic. His over that he bowled which got 3 wickets for India out of which one was of Brian Lara is another moment that shall remain with me. The best century of the master for me is the one that he scored against Australia while chasing in 2009- 175. That is some thing that I rate equal to his 200*. Some of his innings as the ones I have discussed will always remain in our conscious till Cricket is alive in this world as a sport of gentlemen. And the innings of 74 with which Sachin Tendulkar said good-bye to all of us is the most emotional innings. Remembering it at any point of time will make our eyes go wet and heart go numb. 

             Indian team has started doing well without Sachin Tendulkar but he was a habit. A habit that will always make us feel that something is missing from the Scorecard of Indian team. The name of Sachin Tendulkar. I am sure that even the world-class bowlers won't feel the same excitement of facing Indian team because they came with a target of taking God's wicket. They treated it as an honour. We see lots of aggression on field from players of different teams including India but we have never seen Sachin Tendulkar abusing anyone. He has always maintained his cool and showed the world that Cricket is a game in which only bat should speak and not the player. In his career of 24 years, he never got into any controversy because he never invited idiocy towards him. Even when certain unwanted things came in his directions, he made it sure that he does not fall for it. If Cricket will ever be defined by any player- it is Sachin Tendulkar.

              15th November, 2013 has been the last day when we saw him bat and thrash boundaries on several occasions. At least, our master left us with a signature and remarkable style rather than disappointing all of us. We know that Cricket will never die and hence the name of master will keep coming whenever anyone will score a century. It is going to be a totally new world when 70% of his records would be broken by a single player but it's not happening any sooner. Another Sachin Tendulkar will only come when the soul of this great demigod shall pass into someone. And the players like Tendulkar are immortals. The world shall end but their shadow shall remain on most parts of it. We don't know how are we going to see Cricket from here but let's wait for Master Blaster to come back into Cricket with some other role. We will be satisfied even with it too. We salute you, Mr Sachin Tendulkar. Before asking my child to be like you, I would love to be like you. That will itself make fortunes of my 10-15 generations to come. You are that great. All the respect goes out to you.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!