A new stroke, a new chapter and some familiar storylines
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This post has been on hibernation for at least a week now. And in the meantime a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and some familiar stories have unfolded. But I still possess some of the original excitement that prompted me to start this post in the first place.
It all started, when a couple of weeks ago, I spent parts of some three nights drifting in and out of sleep while watching live feed of the second test match between India and South Africa at Durban. While I don’t remember much about the bowling, some of the batting at Kingsmead is still fresh in my mind. And most of these memories are of Sachin’s batting in India’s first innings, and in particular, two strokes.
When I turned on the feed on Day 2, India were 53 for the loss of two wickets in the second session. Andre Nel was at the fag end of his 7th over with Tendulkar on 9 and Jaffer on 24. Then
Pollock started his first spell and both batsmen more or less shut shop at his end. And on the next over (Nel’s 8th of the innings), it happened. Nel’s last ball was full and pitched outside off. Funnily, while I cannot pinpoint how he would have played a similar ball two years ago, his shot for this particular ball has somehow stuck in my mind as a snapshot.
Tendulkar, leaning forward to reach out to the pitch of the ball, drove the ball with the full face of the bat, with a complete follow through. While the ball never rose any more than an inch above the ground and raced toward the ropes, his bat traced an arc and ended above his left shoulder. A text book stroke perhaps, but from the Tendulkar textbook? I don’t think so.
Then with the score on 102 for 3, it more or less happened again, but this time though it ended as a dot ball. Nel pitched one wide outside the off stump again. Tendulkar (then on 45) leaned forward, reached out to the ball and thumped it to left of Gibbs at covers who made a splendid stop to save a otherwise certain boundary.
For some reason these two strokes have stayed in mind. It’s probably one of those things, but maybe I saw something that I haven’t seen before. It is my opinion that the Tendulkar of 90’s vintage would have treated a ball of this kind differently, more violently actually. The loft over covers or the dismissive hoick over long on come to mind specifically. A Google image search on “Sachin Tendulkar” does not return a picture of him on his knees, a la Dravid, does not appear until the third page of results and even that shot is not the classical “on the knees drive”.
So maybe this is Sachin v3.0. But the Sachin v3.0 is widely considered to be a stroke-less wonder, even though according to me, Sachin’s in a period of transition that began just after the World Cup in ‘03. It has been a seemingly long period, but this has been a period fraught with injuries and the infamous tennis elbow.
Wait! Don’t make the mistake of assuming that I am absolving him of all guilt for this latest series defeat. But only that there are people who will have to take more. As Greatbong rightly said, Sachin should not be blamed for the “have bat, will shut shop” attitude in the 4th afternoon, since Sachin came in after Dravid and the onus was actually on Dravid to be on the driver’s seat. Also Strokes like the one from Jaffer in the second test have earned a lot of players far more than just a shrill rebuke from the coach/captain. Ask Damien Martyn. And Sehwag’s wafts outside off have become as staple as Ganguly’s continuing inclinations toward aiding catch practice for the gully fielder. And that is just some of the many reasons.
I think the Tendulkar we saw in the second and third tests in SA is going to be the typical 3.0 version. There will be innings where he, in parts, will look like the Sachin from 1998. But the dismissals will make him seem like he is actually having his “annus horribilis” and those dismissals will be the lasting images of him, a supposedly washed up genius.
And that is where being on Team India will hurt him. While he is perhaps content playing second fiddle to the other ten, a valuable member of the supporting cast till he decides to hang up his boots, Joe Public in India is not going to let him or the team be. Restraint is the need of the hour. Sadly that is going to be a scarce commodity in India, particularly with a World Cup around the corner.
ÜberDesi
Me
January 8th, 2007 at 12:28 pm….where is”i went to india & ate nellika pachadi & vazhaipoo parupu-usli” kinda post? or “i ate sambhar idli from rathna cafe & adai avial from karpagam mess” post…..idhellam vitutu cricket pathi oru post…..unalaam enna pandradhu….
superstarksa http://superstarksa.com
January 8th, 2007 at 12:38 pmMe: That’s your style da. Chillara type posts. I did not come to India to eat. There is nothing I can’t cook there. So why worry?
Me
January 8th, 2007 at 12:57 pm…ada ada ada…anantha unmaya sollu enna matter…..un samayala pathi romba pesara nu unga veetla unna samaika vitutaangala……
capriciously_me
January 9th, 2007 at 2:46 pmme-oda pineapple rasam tragedy-ku appram anantha has no right to scene vittufy in cooking…adhanaala adakki vaasichu post on cricket…i understand….i understand.
Sunil
January 9th, 2007 at 5:45 pmAnantha,
Pardon me for the language I am going to use …
Bull effing s#@t…Tendulkar on the 4th day afternoon was a joke. I am tired of odes to his cover drives and sonnets praising his straight drive. The way he sratched around while SA slowly tightened the noose was ridiculous. He deserves a large portion of the blame. As far as I am concerned, he doesn’t hold a candle to the Waugh, Lara or even Inzamam who all seem to play better when their team needs them the most. So enuf…don’t bring up his cover drive, flick behind square, straight drive or effing leg breaks. Bull f#$5ing s#$t man…Tendulakr v.2 was a strokeless wonder but Tendular v.3 is a heartless washed up super star
me
January 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm….anantha recipe aa me damage….now anantha will comment & damage me’s cooking skills…aagamothathula orey kallula rendu maanga….CM nee yengayooo poita …..
VC http://poop-v2.blogspot.com
January 9th, 2007 at 8:44 pmhe just has to make a few adjustments for his age. to quote from ‘Top Gun’ - his ego is writing checks his body (& reflexes) cannot cash.
superstarksa http://superstarksa.com
January 9th, 2007 at 10:52 pmVC: It’s not physical at all. All the physical adjustments were made circa 2004. Mental, mebbe.
Me: I shall ignore all this irrelevant talk from you vettis.
Sunil: Point well taken. But why would you want to get into the cliched comparisons? Notice that no one really does that these days. Its been beaten to the bush. But one shortcoming that India has had comes to mind. We haven’t found the match winners to replace the triumvirate of Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly/Laxman. That someone’s form/life should come full circle (allow me to use this one cliche) is expected. I think it is rather unfair to place 100 % expectations on one shoulder for such an extended period such as the one, Sachin has endured. For that one reason alone, I am personally willing to put him on a longer leash that he has been burdened with.
Sunil
January 10th, 2007 at 11:55 amAnantha..”cliched comparisons” ..” no one does it anymore ?” ..No you have gone and stoked the fire …
Why the hell wouldn’t I ? The only way to define a player is to compare him to his contemporaries. Cliched you say…Does it make it necessarily wrong ? Waugh loook positively ugly when he bats. Close your eyes and tell me which one of Steve Waugh’s strokes comes to mind…Nothing Right ? But this man only played monumental innings every time his team needed it. its not about looking pretty. Its not about scoring centuries. It is about lifting your game when the chips are down. Thats what great players do. Sachin in a treat to watch. But he is afflicted with what afflicts most Indian batsman except Dravid - fear of failure when the game is on the line.
What stood out most was his cowardice on the 4th day … 8 runs out of 45 balls…Rotate the effing strike and run singles…I am not asking for a one day type blitz…rotate the effing strike…So enuf already…cliched you say…
Sachin Tendulkar was a coward on Day 4 when all he was trying to do was survive on a 4th day indian style pitch against a left arm spin bowler who was making his effing debut.
WA
January 10th, 2007 at 1:09 pmVetti gumbal ellam irukka edhathula naan illenaa nalla irukaadhu so marking my attendance here. Anantha unmaiya sollidu andha pineapple rasam saapittu un friends ellam nalla irukkunnu sonaangalaa? Put your hand on your heart and tell us the truth.
superstarksa http://superstarksa.com
January 12th, 2007 at 3:53 am*LOOONG comment follows*
Sunil: See, it is cliched because of the other background variables. It sounds almost Orwellian to say that the whole top order is to be blamed equally, but Tendulkar needs to take a bigger share of the blame. Much more than Dravid and Ganguly (who were above him in the order), one of whom was equally bogged down and the other gave the almost inevitable catch practice to gully. Then Laxman went to a slow bit of running. On top of it all, Sachin did get a marginal decision too.
OK, I looked at the commentary to be sure (for I felt Dravid was equally tentative). Both Dravid and Tendulkar got almost equal strike during their partnership. To be specific, Dravid played one ball more and scored two runs more than Tendulkar during that period. After Dravid got out, Sachin’s scoring actually picked up a bit (I’d call it a substantial raise considering the situation) till he got a marginal decision. And yet Tendulkar sucks more than the rest? To me it looks like an unfair call to lay the blame totally on Sachin’s feet.
As for the comparisons, When we look at these things, we either talk about Tests or about ODIs and never club them. I think ODIs and Tests should be taken together to get a measure of Tendulkar and his supposed frailties. Dei, Tendulkar’s longevity in terms of actual balls faced will set him apart from any other batsman. So any comparisons with any batsman ever is irrelevant.
Coming to Waugh, his career length (in calendar years) may be comparable to Sachin’s (when Sachin leaves), but at 7000 runs more, even assuming they will have equal strike rates, Tendulkar would have faced more balls. Add the test tallies to it and Tendulkar still has 7000 odd runs (and counting) more. So I will not talk about that comparison at all.
In mechanical terms, all this points to more wear and tear. But wait, you are talking about mental strength here, right? Dude, when the other ten are equally fallible, why point to Tendulkar’s frailities? Let’s just take stock of how many games Waugh failed in that were won by batting from other people like Border, Jones, Taylor, Boon et. al (from the early years) and then later on by the likes of Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and Ponting. If I choose to look, I believe I can get you more than just an handful. As for he alone standing tall to save a game, I think that is a tally that is neither here nor there.
And let’s talk about similar Indian victories when Sachin has failed, I am hard fetched to find some. Maybe that’s my blindness in support of Sachin. So you have a standing invite to continue this in that angle. Machi, more often than not once Tendulkar has gone, the rest have gone as well. And when the rest have fired, Tendulkar has done his bit of backseat driving too. So now at the fag end of his career, let’s not bring that bogey back again! I am sick of it!
As for Lara, he has been an on again, off again genius. The huge-ass run scoring is all fine. The huge backlift is pure poetry in motion. Even the come back from behind centuries and double centuries are fine, but he is a flawed genius at best. In fact it is my opinion that Tendulkar, as far as dependibility is concerned, is Lara’s equal (if not better). Let’s not forget that Lara’s brilliance has been suitably supported by your old friend Shiv and people like Jimmy Adams. And usually when he crumbles, the rest have crumbled too.
And are you really serious about Inzy? Dei, even I run better da and to get a measure of my running, I’d like you to jog your memory to remember me running out Venkat in that low scoring final (I think we folded for 37 or something and that Premnath’s team struggled to get those) in the third year! It’s a permanent blot in my short-lived career, I say!
WA: Welgum!
Bala (Karthik) http://soonapaana.blogspot.com
January 12th, 2007 at 11:22 amAnd you are all forgetting the fact that Sachin had a pulled muscle above his left hamstring in the 4th inning… Have some thought for the man…
Sunil
January 13th, 2007 at 9:56 am“When the other ten are equally fallible why point to Tendulkar ? ”
Well because he is supposed to the next coming of Bradman right ? I do have seperate criteria for Tendulkar because he is more talented and celebrated than any of the other players. if you agree that Tendulkar is just another player in the India team, we don’t have an issue here. But whenever I see paragraphs devoted to his greatness it rings hollow. The fundamental point is, I don’t want to give Tendulkar any more style points. For Sachin to be great in my mind, he needed to take India to the promised land more often. The situation was taylor made for him. Match in the balance, the first time India has had a chance to win a series in a good test playing country and the pitch was docile to the point of ridiculous. If Sachin had taken the match by the scruff of the neck and put up 100 runs in good time, not at 6 an over but at 3.5 an over- SA would have been in big trouble. I should know better…Expecting Tendulkar to deliver when it matters…After what he did against Pakistan in Chennai…
superstarksa http://superstarksa.com
January 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pmSunil: The answer to your question is on a calendar. It is 2007 which makes it 18 years since he started playing for India. Now 10 years ago I echoed the same thoughts in a way. But to me the same match that you mention (the ‘99 second innings knock?) was the turning point for me.
Thats exactly what I am saying now - that Tendulkar is just another player in the India team. To put any more weight on his shoulders is not just a disservice to the man but a disservice to ourselves. That’s just want I was trying to do while ending the post.
The reason I talked about those two identical strokes was because of any style points that are due, but because this is the first time since October ‘04 (I haven’t seen that Sydney double hundred either) that I have watched India play live in a Test match and the change seemed to be drastic.
And once again, please please don’t tell me that you still hold him responsible for that Chennai loss from 1999! Dei, we lost 4 wickets for 4 runs after he got out. And what about that bump catch that Moin claimed against Ganguly!
Sunil
January 13th, 2007 at 12:23 pmPoda loosu…Who else should I hold responsible ? Srinath and Prasad for not countering Saqlain’s doosra ? They were 25 runs away when he played an absolutely ridiculous shot to be caught at mid off by Akram. After battling for a day, playing Saqlain with absolute authority he choked when India got near. No other way to put it.
superstarksa http://superstarksa.com
January 13th, 2007 at 1:20 pmUmmm.. The batsman at the non striker’s end when Tendulkar got out was one of India’s “all rounders”, a decent if not good batsman - Sunil Joshi. And the batsman who got out earlier to an even more atrocious stroke with Tendulkar at the other end was N. Mongia. So whose shot was more criminal? A perfectly healthy batsman who holes out to Akram after making a comfortable half century when all that he needed to do was to take a single and give the strike to Tendulkar or the man who braved a bad back to make 136 runs and fell while trying to finish the game when he could. And note that he went from 114 to 136 at more than run a ball. And he did rotate strike in the meantime too.
So this just tells me that he can do nothing right!