Sachin: The making of 200..

An ordinary day, in fact a very ordinary start to the day, as I woke up late(yet again 😀 ) and in turn reached office late. Office was usual; Some people were playing Farmville, with one eye firmly entrenched on the surroundings, scouting to see if anybody was looking towards their desktop screens, QA and Developers were having a fight over the UI just designed(QA did not like the spellings of certain menu-items, Developers were pleading not to raise a critical defect for such a simple thing), the more hep ones were on Twitter, posting links, teaching others the difference between Old school Retweet and New school Retweet, whatever that is, while I was doing the “Usual”. Ever since I was given Dual monitors(the reason being it would help me increase productivity), I had set up one screen as a dedicated resource for Cricinfo and BBC Football(The second screen was of course used for coding 😉 ). The location of my cubicle was ideal as I could see people marching towards me, but they couldn’t see what I was doing or watching.

Since the 2nd ODI between India and South Africa was to start at only 2:30 p.m., I still had time to kill and so I went out for a sumptuous lunch. By the time I came back it was already 3 and the match had started. I immediately opened cricinfo, but like all Indian things, it has a tendency of failing just when you need it the most :D. So I turned to my other favorite cricket site, Cricbuzz and I noticed that India had just lost Sehwag for 9. The odd thing to note was, that Sachin, usually a slow starter these days, had already raced to 36(27). I felt something elusive was in the making and informed my cubicle colleague about this. But it drew a customary response as does all my sports updates(except for Tennis, for she is a mad Nadal fan, probably a bigger fan of Nadal than Shahrukh Khan, which is a big deal :D)

I always wanted to do something with cricket being my chosen field of work. So I once worked for Cricbuzz as a text-commentator, but that did not materialize into a full-time job(My parents threatened to kick me out of the house and deny me possession of the gigantic family mansion at Timbaktoo) and so started my commentary, or more like updates on Twitter. So while Sachin was starting to open up against the hapless South African bowlers, I was beginning to flood Twitter with my cricket updates. Soon he reached his 50 off just 37 balls and by that time he had made intentions very clear, that of getting a 100. I was still grumbling a little because Cricinfo was acting a little cuckoo and I was taking out my frustration on Twitter by abusing the hell out of Cricinfo. Meanwhile he was really starting to smash the balls to all parts of the ground and you know Sachin is set for a big one when he starts jumping out to spinners and also connects with his glorious inside-out shots over extra-cover.

Soon no.46 was achieved and that was in just 90 balls(a little slow in comparison to his first 50) and thereafter Sachin decided to, like Ravi Shastri loves to shout while on air,”Up the ante”. 1 big shot was being hit almost every over with singles being taken with considerable ease. By the time Dinesh Kartik got out for a well made 79, Sachin had raced to 124(104) and it was just the 34th over. I tilted my head in the now-famous JD like pose(JD from scrubs, overkill of Scrubs I suppose) to day-dream. 16 more overs, 76 more runs, first double-hundred, that moron Saeed Anwar’s record being broken, such thoughts were crowding my mind. I tweeted saying, “If Sachin keeps his head, he can definitely get a 200 this time, one of the records I badly want him to own..”, thats it and people had already started labeling me a jinxer(actually Kartik got out right after this tweet, so I did agree with them to a certain extent, but what the hell..) Then Yusuf the mad Pathan came in and Sachin, like an Oracle decided to take the batting powerplay. That was a very crucial moment, because lot of teams opt for the powerplay and in making quick runs lose wickets and lose momentum totally. However nothing of that sort happened as Sachin and Yusuf went hammer and tongs and the batting powerplay yielded 63 runs. Sachin had reached 150 and it was still only the 38th over.

Sometimes, you see things visualizing in front of your eyes, things that you would generally want to happen, but they don’t really happen. I had this strong hunch, that Sachin would break perhaps the only record in ODIs that he now wanted, that of the highest individual score. That is when I decided, that enough is enough. I can’t just sit like this and follow cricket on the internet when I could very well go down to the cafeteria and watch history in the making. So off I went(with the my heart heavily filled with guilt that I was bunking work for some fleeting batting record). But lo-behold, there were at least 50 people already present in the cafeteria who had chosen to do same thing. As I sat down, Sachin took on Van der Merwe, tonking him over long-off. The shot initially drew a frantic scream(I thought perhaps he had mishit that one) but it comfortably sailed over the ropes. A four of Kallis and couple of 4s off Parnell and he had moved into 190s( I forgot to mention that the cafeteria had gone absolutely berserk when Sachin crossed his personal best of 186).

Well now that he had moved into the 190s, discussions started as to what the highest individual score was. A lot of numbers were thrown, varying from 192-210, with people vigorously supporting their claims with dates and locations of the match. However Neo Cricket perhaps anticipating the commotion, decided to lay to rest the confusion and flashed a table of highest individual scores. Saeed Anwar was right up there(who can forget that painful 194 at Chennai) but people had really not expected to see a Zimbabwe player in first place. Charles Coventry had smashed an identical 194 against a hapless Bangaldeshi attack in 2009, which not a lot of people had bothered to remember. Well now with the mystery solved, people got back to the match and waited with bated breath to absorb a slice of history about to be created.

Sachin had started to tire out and decided to only take singles. Well, at the other end was Dhoni. While he was dealing in singles, Dhoni was dealing in 6s and 4s. Dhoni’s batting style is unique, for he whacks the balls with speeds that would generally kill human beings when struck by them. Dhoni seemed to be enjoying the carnage and kept hitting balls out of the park. People were beginning to get a little restless, for Sachin had been deprived of strike and since he was only taking 1s and 2s, his stay in the 190s was beginning to look increasingly labored. Soon with a couple, Sachin crossed 194 to reach 195. Not too many emotions and 1 mission had been achieved. Cafeteria was filled with raucous claps and blabbering with few people opting to shout “Pakistan Murdabad..”, well not really connected to the context, but what the hell, Sachin has just reached the highest individual score.

Dhoni continued to smash 6s with ridiculous ease and from 4 overs it was suddenly down to only 2 overs and Sachin was still on 199. The 49th over looked something like this with Dhoni being on strike: 0,6,0,6,4,1. “1”, how could he take the fucking single with Sachin stranded at 199. All the Dhoni-haters were screaming their heads off, “Yeh Dhoni saala chor hai. Saala Sachin se jalta hai” were some of the saner responses. 50th over started and Dhoni smashed another 6. Never had I heard people vehemently abusing an Indian batsman for smashing a 6, and I swear to God, if Dhoni had not taken the single of the next ball, people could have smashed the tv-set, such was the tension. Dhoni had actually smashed the 2nd delivery, a full toss, to wide of square leg. But Hashim Amla running around made a vital stop and Dhoni agreed to take only a single(People are now suggesting that Amla would now be felicitated with Padma Bhusan for allowing Sachin to come on strike:D). Finally Sachin was on strike and he had 3 balls to achieve one of the most difficult of batting records. With beads of tension dripping across my face, I watched as the disfigured Langeveldt(His eye looked as if it had been stung by not 1 but a group of monstrous bees) delivered a wide, fullish ball outside off stump. Sachin guided it towards point and in that one moment, everything ceased to move. Single was completed and the crowds erupted.

Never have I experienced such a surge of emotions, inexplicable and irrational. I was proud of the fact that he had reached that land-mark, something only he could have reached(Ponting lovers can go fuck themselves). People were clapping away, hugging each other as if India had already won the match. Such was the Euphoria, that even after Dhoni had blazed 2 more 4s to take the score past 400, nobody was really talking about it. People were still in a daze, that their favorite son of India had reached his ODI batting zenith, a peak from where he can never fall, a PEAK which no one in the near future can scale. It was the 90s all over, when Sachin used to make the country come to a complete stand-still and today he had turned the clock back beautifully.