Daijiworld Media Network
Mumbai, Nov 14: Amidst all the hype and the craze about Sachin's last Test, one man from the visitors camp is silently approaching this game with a landmark of his own to celebrate - it is Shivnarine Chanderpaul's 150th Test the first man from the Caribbean to do so. As is often the case, Shiv rarely gets the eyeballs - he is that sort of character, always willing to play second fiddle, let the other flashy boys take the credit and just get on with his business and the business which he knows best - of making runs.
Pitch Report: 'A typical Mumbai pitch, if you come and see at 8 or 8.30 in the morning there is some dampness on it. There is some grass and there is surely something in it for the bowlers. The first two hours will be very crucial. The ball will seam around and the moisture will give the spinners a chance as well. You could be easily 4 down in the first couple of hours if you don't play carefully. Come what may, Day 2 and Day 3 will be the best time to bat on this surface. All the grass has been nicely rolled in and that is a clear sign that it will seam around if you pitch it on those spots. If India opt to bowl they should look to pitch it up. So win the toss and bowl first is the mantra,' reckon Shaz and Waz on air.
India had another debutant, Rohit Sharma who sparkled as well - scoring 177 to continue his dream run. Just four days before the Test, he had made a career-best 209 in ODIs. This fella seems to be in some nick, eh? Finally all that promise and the talent he possesses is coming out in the open for all to see. India look settled and dangerous and it would take a very special effort from the visitors to spoil India's party.
India have won the toss and have opted to field
Dhoni: 'To the fans disapoointment, we will bowl first. It looks quite soft so the bowlers will have something in it. It is very difficult to imgine playing 200 Test matches leaving the ODIs and the IPL games alone, overall plenty to learn from the great man. Irrespective that it is the last game for him, we will have to do well and give him a happy farewell. We bowled well in Kolkata, once we got the reverse swing, I think Shami bowled really well. We are playing with the same team.'
Sammy: 'We would have bowled as well. Now the openers should win the first hour and we will take the game from there. We have made two changes, Gabriel comes in for Permaul and Deonarine replaces Cottrell.. It is another opportunity to come out and do well. This is a celebration Test match and we would look to enjoy. Our own Shiv is playing the 150th Test match and we will look to enjoy every bit of this game.'
Teams:
West Indies (Playing XI): Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin(w), Darren Sammy(c), Shane Shillingford, Tino Best, Shannon Gabriel
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Mohammed Shami
Ravi Shastri was at ballistic his best at the toss. The BCCI president N. Srinivasan was out there presenting a specially minted coin to mark this monumental Test match.
Chanderpaul has been India's nemesis from time immemorial. He rarely seems to get out and even at Kolkata he was undefeated as the others capitulated around him. In 24 matches against India, Shiv has 2105 runs at an average of 65.78 with seven hundreds. His awkward crab-like batting stance which sees him facing the square-leg umpire rather than the bowler has confounded opposition and driven bowling attacks mad. One look at his record though and you begin to appreciate what a special player he has been for the West Indies.
One should talk about Chanderpaul a bit more, he made his debut in 1994 and has seen the once dominant West Indies side slide steadily down the rankings. Victories have been hard to come by, but he has chugged on like an old, weary soldier who never knows to give up. He is only the 2nd man after Brian Lara to aggregate more than 10,000 Test runs and a telling statistic is this: from 2007, he has averaged 70.52 in 48 Tests which shows his insatiable hunger for runs. As they say, 'you get better with age' and in Chanderpaul's case it has certainly been the case.
India had another debutant, Rohit Sharma who sparkled as well scoring 177 to continue his dream run. Just four days before the Test, he had made a career-best 209 in ODIs. This fella seems to be in some nick, eh? Finally all that promise and the talent he possesses is coming out in the open for all to see. India look settled and dangerous and it would take a very special effort from the visitors to spoil India's party.
Well after all that super heavy dose of Sachin and only Sachin, let's just take a back seat and concentrate on the game per se at Mumbai. For starters, India thumped the visitors by an innings and go into the final match as firm favorites. India found a new bowling star in debutant Mohammad Shami who took 9 wickets in the match and clattered stumps at will. Destroying stumps seems to be his hobby.
They say, you can't get everything in one package well here is the proof, show it to them that there was a man called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who had it all!
What has Sachin not achieved in his career? The leading run-scorer in both formats, has the most number of centuries in both formats, scored an ODI double-ton, won the ODI World Cup in 2011 - the crowing glory of his career. Played for 24 years at the very top. Never indulged in any nonsense. Spotless. Squeaky clean. Never threw his weight around (and even if he did, no-one would've complained). The ideal role-model. Great team-mate and what's more a simple, down-to-earth human being.
Feeling disappointed that the viewer has got no say in celebrating such a magnificent occasion? Don't worry, we will never let your down. We have tons of 'Have your say' questions, just focussing on Tendulkar's achievements where you can respond to our question and get yourself featured on the commentary page. Of course, since this is such a big stage, only the best posts with valid names will be displayed on the site. I reiterate again, quality of posts will take utmost precedence over anything else. Can't please everyone, right?
To mark the grandest of occasions, we have decided to plug all of Sachin's 100 international tons on the commentary page while the match is going on. Yes all the 100 100s - a nifty, crisp description of all those tons just to refresh your memory and take you back in time. Not only that we have all our staff giving us their favorite 'Tendulkar moments' - each carefully picked and chosen by the team.
Do you think the below paragraphs were a bit over-the-top? Too much dramatisation? Too much hyperbole? Too much hype? If you said 'yes' to any of those questions, then we assure you that this is just the start of what is a celebration of Sachin Tendulkar's career. We have just started rolling and there are heaps and heaps of stuff that will come your way through the course of this match.
The 2102nd Test isn't any other match it is far from it. It is the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar's final Test - at Mumbai, his home town. If you are not up for this match, then you never will be up for any other cricket match. If you are not watching/following this match in whichever way (live, on the TV, or on the internet) then you are definitely missing something in your life. It's as simple as that and you better believe it!
Though he is retiring, which fills the cricket fan with sadness, this isn't a time for that emotion, instead it is a time for celebration to rejoice the glorious and almost unparalleled career of Sachin Tendulkar. So far 2101 Test matches have been played overall, the Mumbai Test will be the 2102nd one and in the annals of the game, there hasn't been a more significant Test. I'm not exaggerating or indulging in a over-the-top reaction. It's the truth!
Fast forward to November 14th 2013, 24 years after his debut, he is preparing to say his final goodbye. The venue - in his home town of Mumbai, in front of his own adoring people. It can't get any better than this, can it? This is the stuff, dreams are made of. Everything seems so unreal. It seems romantic and at the same time sadness does engulf the heart as well, for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will not be seen playing for India anymore.
The below lines describe the countless number of fans who felt the same way about Sachin. It sums up the man perfectly and every single word resonates with everyone. Whoever who wrote those words must have been a genius!
Reams and reams of ink have been spent dissecting, analysing, divulging, writing about Sachin Tendulkar, but these following lines by the BBC on him are in a league of its own: 'Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we dont know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.'
Reams and reams of ink have been spent dissecting, analysing, divulging, writing about Sachin Tendulkar, but these following lines by the BBC on him are in a league of its own: 'Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we dont know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.'