What else to conquer for the boy from Bandra?

What is with Sachin Tendulkar? What does he have in him to make the world stand still when he bats? Nothing moves in India when Sachin bats, like the way he did yesterday. From villagers who only have the Doordarshan broadcast with Ashok Malhotra’s Hindi commentary, to the aspiring management graduates in IIFT, Delhi Sachin Tendulkar is a divine act India espouses with love and fondness.

The old Bharathiraja movies must be serving as an inspiration for Sachin Tendulkar. While Bharathiraja is no more making the nature freeze and birds stop flying, Tendulkar continues to do it every single time he crosses a huge milestone.

As the old adage on Tendulkar goes, “Sachin unites the country, like no one does.” Farmers leave their cattle and fields as it is and head home to descry their hero. Software Engineers stop coding! The usually crowded cubicles become empty. There are instances where these people get into conference rooms and listen to All India Radio for live cricket commentary. Once he crossed the landmark, loud cheers exactly mimed the roar in the stadium. Roads get blocked quite easily. Nelson Manickam Road, a famous road in the heart of Chennai came to a standstill as one of the leading electronics shops on the road, started showing this game on their television sets which are for sale. Hundreds of fans gathered to watch their hero surmount another peak. This time around, no one complained about the traffic! He is a superman who defies power cuts in villages, towns and cities where otherwise power cuts are just a part of their life in India.

On the net, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Orkut were all full of Sachin messages! Sachin Tendulkar was the hottest topic on Twitter last evening. When one of them did a local search on the northern hemisphere for the trends, he found that Sachin Tendulkar was the No.1 trend even there. It was a sweet surprise when we consider that the Tendulkar, the individual went to trend more than Vancouver Winter Olympics!

Just to gaze at Sachin Tendulkar, without moving an eye-ball, score every single run over the past twenty years has been some streak of luck for the youth of today. If that is what we call as fortune, then I really don’t know what we would call the ones who were at Gwalior yesterday.

There might be myriad of special knocks from Sachin. The 175 versus Australia last year, the twin-hundreds in Sharjah and the 98 against Pakistan in the World Cup may all be rated greater than this knock. But, this knock would certainly be remembered for his fitness levels at 36 and his ability to maneuver the innings at different gears based on the situation and his personal energy levels.

Right from the first boundary he scored to get off the mark against Wayne Parnell, Tendulkar looked completely set for a big score. While a hundred was for the taking, no one might have thought that there was a double hundred for the taking. The taking, though, wasn’t that easy for the 36-year old. He has immensely improved on his fitness in the past two years. Since Jan 2009, this is his third ODI hundred in excess of 150 and this is his 5th international hundred this year alone.

Considering the amount of international cricket happening currently and the traveling that comes along with cricket, we must all stand and applaud to the master who made us all smile and sleep well for hours together.

This effort of Tendulkar needs commendation for the fact that he ran himself throughout the 50 overs and still managed to enter the field while South Africa started their batting. Of his 97 scoring shots, Tendulkar recorded 56 singles and 13 doubles in his innings. To bat on for the full 50 overs without giving the opposition a semblance of a chance and scoring runs at that strike rate would take some doing.

That Saeed Anwar did it with a runner for the bulk of his innings (Anwar called on for a runner – Shahid Afridi after 19 overs were complete), suggests that Tendulkar’s latest achievement is nothing but sheer hard work. To add on, Anil Kumble had a chance to dismiss Anwar, but Joshi dropped the catch in the boundary. This innings of Sachin’s was chanceless. No inventive shots were played yesterday. He again proved that he can get involved in risk-free stroke play and score runs at will, all at the same time.

Sachin has moulded himself really well in the last couple of years. He started his career like a rookie young boy who drives fast on his newly bought bike. There is no fear involved in this stage of his career. As the kid moves on, he goes on to become a lot more responsible after meeting with multiple accidents. As Ian Chappell said, Failures help us learn more than successes. That probably made him a stronger man post 2007. Now, he is a biker who knows in and out of his bike, his strengths, his weaknesses and cruises along without any issue whatsoever.

The innings made many of us eat our own words. While many believed that batsmen such as Sehwag would be the first to touch the 200 run mark in ODIs, here is a batsman working like a seasoned batting machine for hours together. Given the amount of cricket being played and his age, Sachin wasn’t exactly the batsman many chose as their option for this question. However, he answered in his own inimitable style that all slam-bang hitting might not help one in reaching the milestone.

Image Courtesy – Associated Press

It was probably written that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar would become the first man on the planet to go on to score that elusive 200. Else, why on earth should he be the bowler to dismiss Saeed Anwar for 194 in Chennai?

At the same time, you tend to believe that god exists when you notice that on 16th of August 2009, Charles Coventry was just 3 runs away from breaking the world-record and 9 runs away from 200 in the last over of the innings. Coventry had 6 balls to face and he took a single off the first ball. Syed Rasel caught Mupariwa lbw and later Coventry’s captain, Prosper Utseya takes another 3 balls before he hands back the strike to Coventry. Given the way Coventry went to score his first ODI hundred, he might have relished the chance of scoring the first 200. May be, he wasn’t deserving the record and God realized it.

May be that’s what Gita says, “Do your work. God will take care of the rest.”

6 months later, God’s favorite son goes on a mission against South Africa at Gwalior and seals another record in his name.

I can’t remember too many sportsmen dedicating their individual achievements to the country and to its people. Tendulkar might have done it time and again, but as fans, worshippers and well wishes of Tendulkar, we are just way too honored to get a world-record dedicated to us! May be, that is one reason why we selflessly wish each other, share hi-fis and congratulate the stranger on the road for a Sachin double hundred.

Tendulkar just doesn’t bat all the time. Nowadays, he is so matured and revered that Gavaskar wishes that he gets an opportunity to touch Sachin’s feet. To get such adulation from Sachin’s own hero is amazing and shows the real class of Tendulkar itself.

During the batting power play yesterday, Tendulkar and Yusuf Pathan grossed 63 runs. 3 of those overs were bowled by Dale Steyn. Steyn received extremely harsh treatment from Sachin’s bat and that made him sledge Sachin after the end of an over. Sachin just smiled wide and went berserk once Steyn came back to bowl. A couple of days back, Times of India reported that Sachin Tendulkar has become the brand ambassador to bat against domestic violence against women. The group says kids who are budding cricketers should be taught that sledging and unnecessary aggression on the field spills over at home. This programme enables coaches to help 1000 budding cricketers to identify moments on the field where they can point out inappropriate language and behavior and explain how to change them. So, the bottom line is, if you want to be a Tendulkar, stop the unnecessary aggression on the field.

After all his heroics at Gwalior, Tendulkar might feel what else is left for him to conquer? There is a World Cup coming in a year’s time. He might think that it is way too far to think about it. But, the next 3-4 months will go off swiftly with T20 action in India and West Indies. By the time we blink, the World Cup would be another 6 months away. Even if Sachin cannot help India, it is very important for India to help Sachin win this World Cup for all his contributions in making our lives better for over 20 years.

Who else in this world has made us go mad, plunge into bucketful of tears, walk on the road with pride and at the same time carry a smile even during the toughest periods of life?

Go on Sachin. Go conquer the hearts of a billion more people.