Sachin Tendulkar (pic)
It was a surprise to see Tendulkar reacting the way he did yesterday after scoring the winning runs, as he normally keeps to himself and thanks to god after reaching a milestone.
It appears to me that somewhere in his mind, the tag of "un-finisher" has stuck and he is playing out with a point or two to prove to himself. In the last match, he had a chance to do that, but he got out and thanks to Laxman, India cam home. This time, Tendulkar wanted to script his own story and did not diappoint himself and eventually, India.
Though there are people who say that Tendulkar cannot play in pressure situations and back this up examples such as Chennai (1999). But these very people overlook a simple fact that a match becomes only tough when he departs. Chennai 99 would not have mentioned if it was not for Tendulkar. Yesterday is also a testimony to that. India never looked in trouble while Tendulkar was on crease. Here, I am not taking the credit away from Pujara and not discounting the fact that Dravid was at the other end. But it is also futile to make comparison with Laxman as their playing positions are very different and both are very important in their own aspect.
After all, we do not blame Sehwag when he does not finish a game after giving a solid, fluent start,but somehow we have developed a tendency to point a finger on Sachin when he does not finish a game.
If Sachin is pained by this absurd kind of logic, then god bless the bowlers because he will surely try to conquer this absurd peak also and in the process, will gift us some more wonderful knocks. Because of late, we are seeing a different Sachin while it comes to chases. I am just savouring the view of Ferrari running at incredible speed for incredibly longer period.
