Maestro brings the curtain down on his domestic career with a gritty unbeaten 79 as the Ranji Trophy champions defeat Haryana by six wickets.
Sachin Tendulkar exults after Mumbai beat Haryana in a Ranji Trophy tie in Lahli on Wednesday. - PTI
One of the most popular crowd chants at the Wankhede goes like this: “Mumbai ka don kaun? Sachin! Sachin!” The venue may have been the Chaudhary Bansi Lal Stadium in faraway Lahli but with his arms aloft, a gleeful Sachin Tendulkar proved once again that he is the boss. And thus, the maestro ended his domestic career in some style. His gritty, classical and undefeated 79 guided the Ranji Trophy champions to an eventually comfortable four-wicket win over hosts Haryana on Wednesday.
A straight drive from Dhaval Kulkarni fetched Mumbai the last four of the 39 runs they were required to get on the fourth day. No sooner did the modest medium pacer hit the winning runs than Tendulkar turned around and faced the dressing room, which was all smiles and up on its feet. All morning, the Mumbai camp acted as though the target was a mile away and the bowlers in operation were of the class of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. To say they were tense would be an understatement. That Mumbai didn’t lose any wickets on the final morning was testimony to Tendulkar’s grit and his handling of Kulkarni. But yes, Haryana made them work hard for those runs.
Once the match was over, even the Haryana players were happy to congratulate the great man. While coach-captain Ajay Jadeja patted Tendulkar on the back, his teammates took turns to shake hands with the once-in-a-generation cricketer. The Mumbai players then took over. The big and burly Amogh Pandit, who is the trainer of the team, lifted the little man and plonked him on his shoulders. Tendulkar, who was all too happy to oblige, laughed his heart out and acknowledged the cheers from the delirious crowd.
A word on the day’s play and Jadeja’s bowlers did their best to restrict Tendulkar and Kulkarni.
That Mumbai needed 18 overs to seal the deal proves this. “It was good challenge, a good outing that I was looking for. Thanks to the Haryana side for putting up such a good show on the field,” Tendulkar said. Talking of the two-match Test series against the West Indies, he said, “I’m looking forward to these last couple of Test matches. Hope we produce good cricket and play some good cricket.”
Mumbai sipper Zaheer Khan was a happy man. “I felt that we were in the driver’s seat till the end of the first day,” he said of the contest. “The second morning was crucial, but Joginder Sharma produced a brilliant spell to get Haryana back into the game. Had we taken a decent lead, we could have sealed the game. But that didn’t happen. I’m happy with the way we fought in the second innings. The help in the wicket was dying, but we displayed patience. Sachin’s knock was crucial, but the manner in which Ajinkya Rahane and Kaustubh Pawar applied themselves was encouraging. And Dhaval’s innings at the end was crucial too,” added Zaheer who registered match figures of 5/100 in the low-scoring game.
Jadeja said his team never lost hope. “Even with only four runs needed, I felt we had a chance. Gameplans come and go. Some work, some don’t. It was pretty simple. We had to get Tendulkar.
There’s no team in the world that can win when Tendulkar is in the opposition and you don’t get him out. We tried but we couldn’t.”
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