Watching Sachin leave

Strangely, and this maybe because I have watched most of Sachin Tendulkar’s career before I began covering cricket, I have rarely noticed him when he leaves the ball.

Through the nineties, Sachin letting the ball go was often like a commercial between overs – take your eyes off for a moment, finish off any small pending work and then refocus on the game. It was a brief interlude, as if he was taking a breather before conjuring up further magic.

It was Dravid who came to one’s mind while uttering the words ‘well-left’. It was stuck in the memory – that exaggerated leave which appeared to have been executed after he had cracked several algebraic equations. Everything was precise about it, to a fault in fact, and one noticed it more and more.

With that as the backdrop, you can understand my queer feeling when I watched the game today. Here, right in front of my eyes, was the great Mr. Dravid, yes the wall himself, being turned inside out, struggling against the darting cutters and generally looking a mess against the new ball. And there was the great Mr. Tendulkar, against the same bowlers on the same pitch, judging line immaculately, shuffling nimbly at the crease and shouldering arms just at the right moment.

Here was Dravid, playing and missing, poking, almost choking under the seaming handcuffs. And there was Tendulkar, alert and cool, determined and completely assured, reading the angularities, predicting the bowlers’ tactics, thwarting, thwarting, thwarting. Asif and Gul were jagging it all over the place, breaking through the defensive fortress that is Dravid but against Tendulkar they had not a chance.

For nearly seven overs, he dodged and no amount of movement appeared to matter. His 95 runs made the vital difference between India’s victory and defeat but nobody should forget those snaking deliveries that he harmlessly let go, helped remove the shine and laid out the easier path for the rest of the batsmen.

Tendulkar letting the ball go was a sight in itself. Tendulkar letting the ball go, while Dravid groped in the darkness, made the sight that bit more astonishing.