Tendulkar tears apart East attack

By G. Viswanath

PUNE, FEB. 1. There was the inevitable sense of vacuum - even with Vinod Kambli on an undefeated 105 - when the little champion of Indian cricket left the action-packed scene he was pivotal to, leaving a trail of run-rampage. It so often happens, a mood of emptiness grips the partisan and the perceptive, when Sachin Tendulkar, bids adieu after a grand show of batting.

This is what happened at the Nehru Stadium on Thursday. He had put his mind over matter and was the soul and spirit in scripting West Zone's splendid effort - 384 for four wickets - against East Zone in the Duleep Trophy league match.

But even in the process of fashioning an impressive total for his side, Tendulkar had to accept the truth in the adage, commonly put down as the `glorious uncertainties of the game.' It was a small defeat for the man, who for one minute short of five hours, had exercised complete mastery over a bowling attack.

Tendulkar showed every stroke in his repertoire in a determined batting exhibition, but let down a good, but noisy crowd and perhaps himself when it came to the crunch of getting over his nerves when a few runs short of a first double century in the inter-zonal championship.

The credit must go to East's young captain Shiv Sundar Das to have put the shackles on Tendulkar who took 31 minutes and faced 23 balls to move from 191 to 199. Das, rung in Rohan Gavaskar, though belatedly in the day, and kept his men in the single- saving positions. Gavaskar, who bowled left-arm spin won a small battle without getting the prized wicket of the man he tormented for four overs. But it was as an upshot of his clever bowling, that had Tendulkar - keen to reach a personal landmark - coming down the pitch to clear Sanjay Raul over extra-cover. The leading edge was held by substitute Mridul Gupta, who, without taking his eye of the spiralling ball, held the catch with two hands.

Jaffer out first ball

The day began with Debasis Mohanty's limbering-up delivery moving enough of the seam and keeping a trifle low to take the edge of the bat of Wasim Jaffer. From zero for one first ball, West moved at a pace set by Nayan Mongia and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. The two added 19 runs, not taking any chance against Mohanty and Javed Zaman.

Mongia drove Zaman to the waiting hands of Sukhvinder Singh at cover. But the appearance of Tendulkar swung the course of the first session's play in a manner that thoroughly exposed the limitations in the East attack. Tendulkar first smashed Zaman for nine fours. ``I tried to eschew from making forcing shots. There was no predictable bounce. Once I completely missed a sweep shot, but fortunately I was wearing the helmet and the ball struck the grill,'' said Tendulkar.

While Tendulkar reached his half century off 39 balls with eleven hits to the fence before lunch, Kanitkar picked up four quick boundaries of Utpal Chatterjee and Sukhvinder Singh immediately after lunch. He was adjudged leg before by umpire Des Raj; the batsman showing his bat before he decided to obey to the raised- finger of the umpire. The dismissal of Kanitkar brought in another left-hander, Kambli, who got a mild reprimand from Tendulkar for attempting a reckless shot against Sukhvinder after he had hit his first four.

Thereafter it was a near flawless innings from Kambli, who rotated the strike admirably, nudging the ball and dropping it short of the fielder. Tendulkar had a slice of luck after he reached his century (at 103) when Gavaskar at mid-off spilled a catch of the bowling of Raul.

It would have been befitting if Tendulkar (199, 299m, 214b, 30 x 4s, 4 x 6) had notched a double century which would have been his fifth in first class cricket, the previous four being against Australia, New Zealand, Tamil Nadu and Zimbabwe. But he had to leave the field without accomplishing this feat. A little later, Kambli who had mixed caution with aggression, completed his fourth century (105, 206m, 151b, 12 x 4s, 3 x 6) in Duleep Trophy.

The scores:

West Zone - 1st innings: W. Jaffer c Deep Das Gupta b Mohanty 0, N. Mongia c Sukhvinder b Zaman 7, H. Kanitkar lbw b Sukhvinder 42, S. Tendulkar c sub (Mridul Gupta) b Raul 199, V. Kambli (batting) 105, J. Martin (batting) 2, Extras (b-6, lb-8, nb-15) 29, Total (for four wkts. in 90 overs) 384.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-19, 3-146, 4- 371.

East bowling: Mohanty 15-6-47-1. Zaman 14-2-78-1, Jai Chandra 5-1-17-0, Sukhvinder 17-1-87-1, Chatterjee 21-6-68-0, Raul 14-1- 60-1, Gavaskar 4-0-13-0.

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