A billion dreams end: Sachin Tendulkar's long walk back, possibly for the last time
Nov 16, 2013, 12.30 AM IST
MUMBAI:
A stunned, disbelieving hush descended upon Wankhede stadium. It was as though a cord had been brutally yanked, abruptly cutting off power to a TV blaring at full volume. Barely a second ago, the stadium had been a seething cauldron (that much-used phrase is no exaggeration, because 30,000-odd people screaming, clapping and waving generate a fair bit of heat). You had to yell at the top of your lungs to be heard by the person standing next to you. Now, it was as silent as a morgue. A billion hopes lay dead.
Sachin Tendulkar, batting fluently at 74, had tried a stroke that was half cut, half steer, and instead found West Indies captain Darren Sammy at first slip. Sammy had caught Tendulkar at 94, again at first slip, when the West Indies last played a match at the Wankhede a couple of years ago. At the start of this tour, Sammy had vowed to break Indian hearts. He kept his word.
Narsingh Deonarine, a part-time offspinner who began this match with 19 victims from 14 Tests, had just picked up his 20th wicket. It is one that he will never forget. Deonarine himself may never be forgotten, because he seems very likely to go down in history as the bowler who got Sachin Tendulkar out for the last time.
Tendulkar briskly began the long walk back to the pavilion, disappointment writ large on his face. The crowd scrambled to its feet. The familiar chant, "Saaaachin, Sachin," reverberated through the stadium yet again. But this time felt different. There was a despondence, a poignance that brought on a major attack of goosebumps.
Sachin stopped just short of the dressing-room steps, slowly turned around and acknowledged the crowd, bat raised. The noise, impossibly, rose a few decibels higher. It's just as well that the Wankhede doesn't have an enclosed roof, because if it did, the crowd's roar would surely have brought it down. Several people dabbed furiously at their eyes.
Cheteshwar Pujara would go on to make a century, and Rohit Sharma would become only the second Indian to score a century in each of his first two Test innings. But there was a sense of anti-climax about the proceedings that followed Sachin's wicket. The drama was missing and the match reverted to ordinariness as the Indian batsmen ground a toothless attack into the dust. By the time the day ended, most of the spectators had already trooped out.
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