The Tendulkar blitzkrieg

Harsha Bhogle reflects on Sachin Tendulkar’s marvellous double hundred in the second ODI against South Africa – a first for the 50-over version of the game.

Sachin Tendulkar didn’t just steal Mamta Bannerjee’s rail budget, he gave us a reason to feel good. It was an astonishing innings but one that was helped to some extent by the prevailing attitudes towards batsmen and bowlers. The pitch at Gwalior was dreadfully one-sided, the ball on the outfield was like a car on an autobahn, the boundary ropes were inching in to say hello and there were, as is now the norm, 20 overs of field restrictions.

In fact you must have noticed that Tendulkar’s big surge began with the batting power play; a luxury that batsmen did not enjoy till recently. That momentum kept him going and it would be a worthwhile debate to ask if he would indeed have got there without that power play.

Now, having said that we often have conditions in our favour but are unable to convert them into results. This is what Tendulkar has been so good at doing. Indeed it is a feature of this extraordinary twelve-month period where he is at his most prolific. Would be interesting to see how this compares with other highs in his career.

Particularly loved his wagon wheel which showed how straight he was playing. For a while he had lapsed into playing the paddle shot and other more plebeian nudges. Now he is back to doing what he is best at. Hitting powerfully down the ground and putting fear into the bowler. I think it is also a measure of how he feels about his game. He has always been supremely confident but now that he is fit he probably feels a lot better, much more positive.

Wonder what a Tendulkar batting curve over the years looks like. Once we generate it maybe we can show it to the stock market experts who can advise us if there is a correction or a spike on the way!