India tour of Australia, 2003–04.
Going into the final test of Border-Gavaskar series on his own turf, Steve Waugh had one last chance to avenge the remarkable triumph by Dada's army against Australia at Kolkata and Chennai, 2001.
This epic series, evenly poised with 1–1 after three tests, had seen it all.
- 1st test at Brisbane was drawn after Sourav Ganguly's gem of 144.
- In the next test at Adelaide, Dravid and Laxman created their second miracle and Agarkar produced a life time spell to provide India a historical lead of 1–0.
- With return of Brett Lee, the hosts came back at their best in Melbourne and levelled the series despite Sehwag’s freakish knock of 195.
But it had not seen something which it was used to seeing: A Sachin Tendulkar’s Masterclass.
Famously poor travellers, Team India, went head to head against the world champion and were standing toe-to-toe with their hosts, but it was achieved without a single contribution from their best batsman. Sachin Tendulkar had scores of 0, 1, 37, 0 and 44 in his five Test innings on the tour.
Having been repeatedly out caught behind trying to play a cover drive, a shot which used to be a piece of cake for him, Sachin was seldom seen such woefully out of form. Even in the second innings at Melbourne, when he scored 44, he had shown snatches of his best form, but had perished to a snick again playing the same shot.
Even Shane Warne, who wasn’t playing the series, was surprised to see Sachin practicing for 10 long hours in the nets still failing to make his presence felt on the real pitch.
Australians thought that they had figured out the weakness of the world’s best batsman.
He was Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar though. In his entire career, he thrived on challenges. Doubts and criticism never cowed him down. Rather it made him flourish even more.
You know why? Because apart from all the batting skills and abilities, he had sheer grit to look into his own failures, accept it silently, wear it on his skin and rectify it in the most unthinkable way.
Coming into the fourth test of the series, Sachin Tendulkar took an outlandish decision as he decided not to play his trademark shot, a shot which made him what he was — COVER DRIVE.
Fourth Test, Sydney, 2–6 January, 2004.
He strode to the wicket 20 minutes after lunch in a full packed iconic Sydney ground on Day one with the score on 128–2 following the loss of two quick wickets, with Australia’s tail up and the home team sensing blood.
While he walked into the middle, he looked into a deep meditative thought. He was programming his conscience to a level where even a decent batsman never ever dreamt of reaching to.
Australia had a simple plan on the basis of the last five innings — bowl outside off deliveries, keep things tight, pack offside with fielders and he would get himself out.
Tell you what! Gillespie, Brett Lee and Bracken ran hard to fire outside off deliveries one after another, but Tendulkar virtually let go of all the balls that swung out of the off-stump. They came near to him and joked about it to break his concentration, but he was immune to all.
He rather made Aussies bowl at his stumps instead of going to them. And whenever they did, he lowered down his shoulder elegantly and brought his wrists into the action to bend the direction of the ball into the leg side producing magical boundaries.
The day ended with Sachin being on 73* off 156 deliveries out of which 101 were delivered outside the off stump. Sachin scored 12 boundaries and none came as a cover drive. His control awed spectators and commentators.
Day two witnessed a batting phenomena displaying an extraordinary piece of two D’s: Determination and Discipline.
Ball by ball, minute by minute, over by over, hour by hour and session by session the day two progressed and Sachin kept finding the gaps on on-side with ultimate precision.
Many outside the off deliveries were sent searing past the non-striker with impeccable timing which was termed as Tendulkar’s Straight Drives.
(An absolute beauty, isn’t it?)
They bowled outside off and he left. They came at him and he put it away. They missed their line with tiniest of fraction and he sent it over the fence with gorgeous timings. He didn’t destroy the attack. Rather he allowed it to disintegrate.
A leg glance off Simon Katich brought up his century and the way he, one of the calmest batsmen ever, punched his fists into the air, it showed how much he waited for this one.
As usual Harsha Bhogle was spot-on on the air,
A special hundred for the great cricketer and a lovely man. Oh! I have no idea how much this means to him. A quiet man answered with his bat. Well played, Sachin Tendulkar. Crowd at Sydney Cricket ground, they are all up and applauding.
While on channel 9, Richie Benaud graced the occasion with his voice,
And there it is. That’s the comeback hundred if you can use that phrase for one of the greatest players World has ever seen. A hundred for Sachin Tendulkar.
This answer has to be about Sachin’s knock but Laxman’s 178 was also a piece of dazzling brilliance. The way both batted together, there was little the bowlers could do. Their astonishing symphony made Aussies run all around the park, grinding them into the dust. If ever there was poetry in a Test cricket partnership, this was it.
Once Sachin completed his century, his determination went even stronger. His discipline remained intact but he looked even more sublime. The second new ball caused Laxman’s wicket but Tendulkar flowed flowed and flowed, like a river with no ending.
Brett Lee’s brutal out swingers outside off stump were driven with finesse down the ground. Stuart MacGill was pulled, swept and cut to lethal effect. The Aussies threw everything at him from their arsenal, but Tendulkar did not budge at all and went on to complete a monumental double.
(Look at the man celebrating a knock which was engineered so miraculously that even he looked impressed by himself. No wonder this guy made a whole generation of champion batsmen like Virat, Rohit and others pick their bats at the first place.)
He batted for the entire day two and day three before the declaration. India climbed to a mammoth 705/7, breaking dozens of overseas batting record.
Later a few umpiring errors, Parthiv’s wicketkeeping errors and Steve Waugh’s gritty knock on the final day helped Aussies to save the test, but Sachin’s incredible innings made sure that Steve Waugh would retire without getting his hand on the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
The Master removed his and the game’s greatest stroke - the Cover- drive - from his repertoire because it had been causing him too much grief, and went on to play a remarkable innings of 241* runs, 33 fours, 436 balls, 613 minutes. He didn't stop there and scored 60* in the second innings.
Last but not the least:
The wagon-wheel of boundaries of the innings showing 10 hours of utter control, focus and determination,
It was kind of an inning that doesn’t fade away from the mind. It fascinates you, inspires you, holds you captive and when you recall it years later, it teaches you how Discipline matters to succeed in life.