Sachin Tendulkar - A cake walk? Not any more

Things are going a bit pear shaped for Sachin Tendulkar

The cricketing conditions could not have been any better than today – No pressure of chasing a huge target, not a difficult pitch, and not much of pressure.

For Mumbai Indians, the match against Lions was seemingly quite easy. Lions do not really have any outstanding spinner or fast bowler. Even the score put up by them was a meagre 141 in 20 overs. This meant Mumbai Indians had to score just about 7 runs per over. During the batting in second innings at Jaipur, even the weather becomes tolerable.

In the above circumstances, any batsman is expected to score fairly well. And when the batsman happens to be none other than Sachin Tendulkar, sky is the limit. The target given to Mumbai was not enough for a batsman to think of a century, but a significant contribution was possible. We thought that hopefully, today after getting a standing ovation, Sachin might deliver something really good.

Sachin faced Tsotsobe in the second over but could not score much. Sachin did not look very confident initially. Many of the fans thought that a score of 30 to 40 runs would be reasonable for him. But alas, the fate had something else written. On an individual score of just 5 runs, a very ordinary delivery shattered Sachin’s stumps, as well as the dreams of fans. This delivery was bowled by Sohail Tanvir, a sidelined Pakistani bowler who does not even make the national squad.

The impact of ageing is clearly beginning to show on Sachin Tendulkar. The feet are not moving, the judgement is not perfect and the body language is low. The self-esteem and confidence that he was known for, has vanished.

It is really painful to see that a legend like Sachin could not make even a reasonable score despite all elements favouring him! This was perhaps the stress piled on himself by the Master. He really wanted to do well in his last T20 tournament, but he has failed miserably, again.

It does not stand well with his previous records – a long glorious list of them. What is even more frightening is that the other legend Rahul Dravid has also performed like a rookie. His records are no less than Sachin, but he too has had a very poor tournament.

I think it’s time for these legends to say goodbye. They need to understand that making a mockery of their averages and the hopes of the millions is not right. Sachin will always be on top in the record books, but perhaps it is high time to end this embarrassment. Love you Sachin!