When Sachin Tendulkar played his last International match and the crowds started getting emotional.
It all started when BCCI hastily arranged a 2-match Test series against West Indies in 2013 after a spat with South Africa cricket board for the schedule of that series. Tendulkar declared it as his final series of his professional cricket career.
In 1st Test at Kolkata, Tendulkar scored only 10 runs but took the wicket of Shane Shillingford.
But in the 2nd Test, at his request to host it at his home-ground, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai so that his mother can watch him live for the last time, he scored 74 runs off 118 balls with 12 fours.
Coincidentally, he scored his last boundary of his professional career by his favourite straight drive shot, for which many pundits and audiences described his play as second to none.
Not only that, his successor Virat Kohli also shined with 67 runs batting at No.5, Cheteshwar Pujara scoring 113 runs at No.3 and Rohit Sharma, on his debut Test series, scored his 2nd Test hundred, a 111* off 127 balls to put a win out of West Indies’ hands.
India won the Tendulkar’s farewell match by an innings and 126 runs.
Another coincidence to be noted is that Tendulkar scored 52 runs in his last ODI and 74 runs in his last Test match. This equates to 126 runs in his last innings of respective formats which was the win margin achieved by Indian Team in Tendulkar’s farewell match.
Not only that, Tendulkar also paid respect to the ground after the conclusion of the match.
Tweets included hashtags like #ThankYouSachin, #SachinSachin and #SRT200 were flooded on Twitter and Facebook post Tendulkar’s retirement.
This was the best farewell match any player could had got as well as he himself turned it into a memorable one!!
#ThankYouSachin