LONDON: As the epochal century of centuries loomed, it looked like Sachin Tendulkar was suddenly batting on a bed of nails. His eyeballs widened and the stare became more pronounced; surely, his hands were sweaty inside the gloves and his footwork took to its own fancy too.
Scorecard | Match in Pics
England captain Andrew Strauss, then, pulled off a masterstroke. With the new ball just four overs away, and Tendulkar on 91, he tossed the old one to Tim Bresnan; Tendulkar would have expected Kevin Pietersen, who had bowled the previous over to be given one more over. His eyes lit up; his adrenaline shot up. The moment had arrived.
He lunged forward for the drive, missed the line and promptly turned away in his inimitable bluff; but the roar that followed told him that umpire Rod Tucker had not fallen for it: it must have sounded to him like the roll of thunder, like a furious storm in the deepest of oceans. He looked back sharply, first in shock at the celebrating England players and then in dismay at the skies; finally, he tucked his bat under the arm and blowing hot air walked away ever so slowly.
The Oval that had plunged into silence quickly gathered its wits and rose to salute the luckless little master; but the mood suddenly changed: victory was in the air again and the festivities resumed with even more vigour.
About an hour later, the 0-4 whitewash was done and dusted. Suresh Raina, who looked like he was in a trance, was rapped in front of the stumps; but he was even more zapped because umpire Taufel had not heard or noticed the edge. A second duck completed his miserable tour, at least in Tests.
The rest of the tail too folded up quickly to give England a heady innings and 8-run victory. Graeme Swann, as expected, was the destructor in chief, taking six for 106. His bowling was, however, much more telling as the track seemed to have eased up, especially when the wickets dried up.
Earlier, there was a buzz in the air, the kind that Ten
dulkar used to elicit in his hey days. The queues had fallen in place at least two hours before play and, for the first time, there were many more Indian faces in the crowd.
But it wasn't just about Tendulkar's impending century of centuries; England could sense a victory too, a clean sweep as well. It was almost like the first day of a much-awaited Test series, or the last day of the World Cup.
Resuming at 129 for three, with the ball breaking and turning sharply, it was always going to be a race between the historic hundred and a momentous victory. But all fears were dispelled quickly as Amit Mishra batted like an accomplished batsman; indeed, he set the tone with his cuts, drives and even lofted shots.
He not only flummoxed England's bowlers but also took away the pressure from Tendulkar; he played like it was a first day wicket at the Kotla. It almost looked like there was no pace in the track, and the zip had also gone away for the spinner.
Tendulkar and Mishra waded through the first session without any mishaps, not losing a single wicket for an entire session just the only time in this series. But it wasn't all quiet or incident-free; just as lunch beckoned, Tendulkar became edgy. Fortunately for him, though, he enjoyed the luck of a dying man.
First, an inside edge came too quickly for Cook at forward short-leg; Prior, then, couldn't hold on to an outside edge. In between, he missed a sweep and offered no stroke to another delivery. Replays showed that Tendulkar was 'out' on both occasions.
The collapse, however, was triggered by Mishra's dismissal; playing for turn, like he had done for most of the day, he was beaten by a straighter one by Swann to be bowled comprehensively. His 84 was, however, the lone hope for India as Tendulkar erred on the side of caution.
Some fairytales end in tears; this one went wrong from the first day itself. It will not be a bed of roses, at least not for some time.
Oz opener Hughes seeks out his guru and Tendulkar in India
Nagpur, Aug.29 (ANI): Out of favour Australian opener Phil Hughes is in Nagpur working on his apparent weaknesses against the short ball with his coach Neil D’Costa.
D’Costa is looking after a cricket academy here and raves about the facilities and future.
Hughes could have come home with his other New South Wales teammates this week, but has stopped off at Nagpur to work on his cricket with D’Costa and catch up with Sachin Tendulkar.
According to The Australian, Hughes is happy and unbroken despite suffering the disappointment of being dropped during the Ashes series and insists he was coming to Nagpur to work on his batting.
“The goal is to always get better. I had always planned to catch up with Neil no matter what happened. I wanted to get in the nets with him and keep working on my game,” Hughes said.
D’Costa is evasive when pressed about what the pair are working on.
“I speak to Michael Clarke and all my students at regular intervals and work with them when I can,” he said.
“It’s about mechanics, your biomechanics things are always changing. The world will think the key is to put Phil in front of a bowling machine and bowl bouncers all day. The mechanics of cricket are a little more advanced than that, despite what you hear from commentators,” he added.
“We aren’t working on specifics, but one thing I know from working with kids, through adolescence and into their early adulthood, is that your technique does change and you need to keep addressing the biomechanics of it to understand how you are playing,” he said.
Pushed further he admits he saw something in England. I won’t tell you and I won’t tell anyone else, but I did think there was something in his (Hughes) mechanics that he needed working on, 100 per cent,” D’Costa said.
The little opener is also turning to the Little Master. He intends to fly to Mumbai on Monday and hopes to have dinner with Tendulkar. Hughes promises to gorge himself on cricket. (ANI)