After spending a struggling 34 minutes on the crease, he was dismissed for just one run, edging a delivery which a man of his class would ordinarily leave alone.
MUMBAI: On Sunday, for the first time in 17 years, Sachin Tendulkar was booed, that too in Mumbai, his home town.
After spending a struggling 34 minutes on the crease, he was dismissed for just one run, edging a delivery which a man of his class would ordinarily leave alone.
But these were not ordinary circumstances. He was battling to get out of that lean patch in the longer version of the game.
However, even on his home ground, he had little success. And this time, part of the crowd didn’t take to it too kindly.
“It’s a very sad day for cricket. It’s not correct that such a great player is put through this,” said Lalchand Rajput, former Indian cricketer and secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association. “However, knowing Sachin, the jeers from the crowd will only spur him on to put on a big score in the second innings.”
Former England skipper David Gower offered a different perspective. “For the lesser players, it’s a morale booster that when as great a player as Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t perform, the crowd doesn’t spare him either.”
And in truth, Tendulkar didn’t put up a good show. He struggled every moment in his 21-ball knock, pushing and prodding but with little conviction. Even in the defensive shots, the felicity was missing. Uncertainty stood out in his batting and he was out when a big innings, overdue from him for some time, was needed.
India, chasing England ‘s 400, were reduced to 28 for three.
The dejection of failure would not have been helped by the first taste of crowd dissent. But he only needs to go back to 1987 and to the other little master for a precedent. Sunil Gavaskar too had been booed off the field by the Wankhede crowd in his last international innings against England in the 1987 World Cup semi-final, after he fell cheaply to the English bowler Philip Defreitas.
For Tendulkar, however, there is still that second innings.
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