From The Vault: - When Sachin ran amock at Centurion

The advent of the new millennium had marked a massive shift in the world of cricket. West Indies were now a dying force in international cricket, with Australia emerging as the new dominant pole, the match-fixing scandal had torn world cricket, especially Indian cricket apart and then the team had emerged from the ashes like a phoenix with that historic 2-1 win in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2001. 2003 was a major year for the cricketing world as the new millennium’s first-ever Cricket World Cup was to take place and this time, the World Cup was to chart a path into the unknown as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya were selected to host the World Cup, thus making it the first time that the tournament had travelled to the continent of Africa.

The Indian team’s ODI form had changed drastically from the times in the 90s, with players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif having added a lot of batting smarts to the line-up and the emergence of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra in the pace attack had changed the dimension of Indian pace bowling. But one man, in the 14^th year of his international career, still was heading the wolfpack and on 1^st March, 2003, he decided to just show why he remains as the best blue-chip stock on the cricket market with an exhibition on the biggest stage and against his nation’s biggest rival on an unfamiliar foreign land.

Sachin Tendulkar came into the World Cup on the back of a very successful year of 2002, where his test and ODI batting form remained peerless. But there was one major change that had happened to his role in the ODI setup. Coming into the World Cup, Sachin had spent almost a year batting at no.4, in a bid to lend experience and solidity to a slightly fragile middle order. Yet, on the eve of the tournament, an embarrassing hiding at the hands of a Natal Select XI in a pre-World Cup warm-up match, saw the highly experienced bowling duo of Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble tell the coach John Wright and captain Sourav Ganguly that for the team to go far in the World Cup, they should consider restoring Sachin to the top of the order. Both Wright, Ganguly, as well as vice-captain Rahul Dravid, understood the message this move would carry and after a chat with Sachin, he was moved back to his favourite spot at the top of the order.

He had struck a pot of gold on the form table with major contributions in each of the 5 group stage games India had played at the World Cup until 1^st March 2003. With scores of 52, 36, 81, 152 and 50 in games against The Netherlands, Australia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and England respectively, he was vindicating the trust of the team management to have him open the innings once again.

1^st March 2003 was a massive day for the tournament as India took on their arch-rivals and prickly neighbours Pakistan in a titanic clash at the SuperSport Park at Centurion, for the first time in 3 years. The game was extremely huge for both the sides, especially Pakistan, whose hopes of qualification for the Super Sixes stage hung on this result, while for India. The significance of this encounter became very much evident when the match referee for the clash, Mike Proctor had a stern word with both the captains, Sourav Ganguly and Waqar Younis to observe proper sportsmanship and uphold the spirit of the game with due care. Pakistan had won the toss and chose to bat first on a very good and hard wicket which promised runs. Runs they did get, did Pakistan as they racked up a massive 273/7 in their 50 overs thanks to a customary hundred against India for opener Saeed Anwar and very handy lower-order contributions from ‘keeper Rashid Latif and legendary pacer Wasim Akram. With 274 to chase for India and a fiery Pakistani pace attack which consisted of Wasim Akram, captain Waqar Younis and the fastest bowler going around the globe in Shoaib Akhtar, India wouldn’t have an easy time chasing this score and once again, the team and a billion-plus people prayed at the altar of the man, as the Australian opening batsman, Matthew Hayden had said of him, that he had seen God, the entire country prayed for him to take India to victory.

In his own words, since the time the fixtures of the World Cup was announced in 2002, and this marquee clash had been scheduled for the said date, he was compelled to live and think of this match for an entire year and for 12 days preceding the game, he had been experiencing sleepless nights as he went about planning about it. The seriousness with which he was taking this match became evident when instead of going to the non-striker's end, where he usually stood as an opener, Sachin took the first strike with his opening partner Sehwag on the other end and Wasim Akram opened the defence for Pakistan. Sachin made his intentions known to the Men in Green when he punched through the line and sent Akram’s third ball of his opening over to the cover boundary.

The game changed irreversibly though, in the second over of the chase. Shoaib Akhtar hadn’t had the greatest of tournament’s before this, but in their game against England, he bowled the fastest ever ball to be bowled in the history of the international game, with the speed measured at just over 160 kph. But neither he nor Pakistan could remotely expect what they were about to be hit with. On the fourth legitimate delivery of his first over, Shoaib bowled a short and wide delivery outside off-stump screaming in at over 150 kph, and Sachin played the defining shot of this rivalry in the modern era, by slamming it over the third man fence for a massive six, a message which was absolutely stone-cold for Pakistan that in the new millennium, their dominance over India in this rivalry was on its end. But that wasn’t it, the very next delivery was over-pitched by the bowler and Sachin expertly flicked through square leg for a four, and the exclamation point was delivered with the final delivery. Shoaib bowled a delivery that was just slightly full, erring on the over-pitched length, and Sachin just played a defensive block, which sped away past mid-on for four. This was the shot and the over that clearly had broken Pakistan’s spirits and chances in the game. By the end of this over, Sachin was already batting on 20 off just 9 deliveries.

Sachin then powered on from that and started carting each Pakistani bowler across the park, playing some absolutely delectable flicks and drives. In particular, there were a couple of beautiful glances past the square leg boundary off both Wasim and Waqar. Around him though, Sehwag fell after raising a blistering half-century opening stand with Sachin inside 5 overs off Waqar’s bowling and the captain Sourav Ganguly departed off the next delivery. That brought in Mohammad Kaif to the crease, who got promoted to no.4, so as to ensure that Sachin has someone with whom he can regularly rotate the strike. Kaif played that role to perfection, finding the boundaries at every possible chance while rotating the strike frequently with Sachin and calming the slightly ruffled waters that were created with the two back-to-back wickets.

Sachin had a massive escape though when he was batting on a score of 32 and India at 57/2 in 6.3 overs, when the fielder at mid-off, Abdul Razzaq dropped a relatively simple catch off the bowling of Akram and it’s hard to imagine comparing this to that drop by Herschelle Gibbs of Steve Waugh in the ’99 World Cup semi-final between South Africa and Australia. After that stroke, Sachin just kept rolling off boundaries off his bat, which resembled more of a scimitar, which was slashing away at every Pakistani bowler in his sight, be it Wasim-Waqar-Shoaib or the leg-spinning all-rounder Shahid Afridi or medium-pacer Abdul Razzaq. He played a delectable back-foot punch drive through covers off Waqar which was followed by another off Wasim, which drew an “ooh and aah” from commentator Robin Jackman, who was on the mic at that time.

Sachin raised his fifty in just 37 deliveries, his 60^th in ODI cricket and ensured that the carnival didn’t stop. He pulled off a beautiful late cut off Afridi’s pacy leg-breaks and followed that up with a whipped flick through the midwicket boundary. The longer he went on, Pakistan’s worries kept lengthening. It was also after crossing his fifty that he started cramping up badly, which impaired his running between the wickets to a great degree. When he crossed the score of 86, he became the first man to score 12,000 runs in the history of ODI cricket, a feat which just showed how he had changed the landscape of ODI cricket and displayed the realms of possibility that he had opened up in this format.

While batting on 98, facing his 75^th delivery of his innings and India on 177//3 in just 27.3 overs, Sachin, having called in a runner in Sehwag after he couldn’t carry on running and was visibly hobbling during the drinks interval, Shoaib Akhtar who was recalled into the attack, bowled a steep bouncer which climbed up on Sachin, thus forcing him to fend it off his glove to point, where Younis Khan dived forward to take a nifty catch, which brought an end to the knock. India though, in the calm company of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh saw the chase through without any further damage and wrapped up a comprehensive 6-wicket win, thus putting Pakistan on the verge of an early exit and putting themselves into the Super Sixes stage with a lot of confidence.

That day in Centurion was a demonstration of the sheer brutality and artistry that Sachin can combine in his knock and also showed, not every match-winning innings has to be a century. 17 years later, the dimensions of the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry was altered, irreversibly perhaps, all due to that one upper cut for six that rattled Pakistan cricket and their performance in every subsequent World Cup clash against India.