Terrific Tendulkar

Whatever happens from now on -- and even if some brilliant Australian batting goes on to subdue the gallant visitors -- India have proved a point. The whole world now acknowledges that they are indeed serious contender to the Australian crown. What a turnaround after the World Cup disaster last year!

If some attributed their superlative show in the first final to law of averages (after all, losing eight out of eight finals would have been cruel mathematically!), they have been proven wrong.

While Youth has been a big factor in these triumphs in recent times, the exploits of Harbhajan and Tendulkar had a great deal to contribute to them. These two players took two major factors out of the equation. While Bhajji took anger out of the equation (by managing it well) and galvanized the whole team, Tendulkar took nervousness out of the Indian system with some audacious strokeplay.

On Sunday, it needed a great deal of character to bowl at Symonds and Hayden after what all had happened, and Bhajji did show the stuff he is made of, in the first ODI. But for his twin strikes, India would have still been ruing about the mountain they did not climb. But his strikes ensured a manageable chase, and then came Tendulkar!

While some authentic strokeplay has always been the hallmark of Tendulkar, it were his ariel exploits towards the point and thirdman regions (both on Sunday and Tuesday), which made a complete mockery of the Australian attack and gave heart, and much needed impetus, to the Indian batting.

Hopefully, all critics (including myself) have been silenced forever. We better be. Every time Tendulkar has been criticized (and he did deserve some of it in 2005 and 2006 for failing to measure up to his lofty standards), he has hit back in style.

It is not that criticism was always unjustified. But soon after, Tendulkar’s bat has made every critic eat crow. Be it Ian, Manjrekar, some monthly wage earning journalist, blogwriter, or free-lancer.

After today’s performance, whether it leads to an eventual series win or not, we must all shut up. Let Tendulkar retire as and when he wants to. Even if he wants to play till 58, he must be allowed. Men in blue seem to have become addicted to his presence and an electrifying knock from him has the potential to lift up everybody in the Indian team.

At the time of writing this post, Tendulkar is still few runs away from making his second consecutive century in Australia. If he makes it, it will be another remarkable feat from a remarkable man.