Sachin’s last hurrah

The crowd went berserk at the very sight of the great man, walking into the field for one last Test outing. There were hysterical moans, groans and what have you when the captains went to toss. This was to be his day and every moment of his was meant to be followed amid an aura hope and expectation that the Tendulkar magic would be all over.

Everyone was there to cheer every little thing that he did. By stumps on the first day of the momentous Test, there was nirvana of sorts because he would resume Indian batting on Friday.

It hardly mattered that Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin were plotting the downfall of the brittle West Indian bating, which itself was soaking under the landmark Test for Shivnarine Chanderpaul, playing his 150th Test.

The moods of the crowd can best be explained with the manner they reacted when Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to field. The public detested it because they were there only to watch Tendulkar take strike and not to see him field.

However, their prayers were answered in double quick time because the visitors committed hara-kiri and fell like nine pins.

The moods were of a more exalted order when Murali Vijay and Shikar Dhawan began the Indian first innings.

Not surprisingly for the first time in Indian cricket perhaps, fans celebrated the fall of Indian wickets.

There was a loud applause when the stoic Vijay fell and the score read 111 for two wickets. The moods changed dramatically when Vijay was trudging his way back to the pavilion.

Tendulkar walked as he has all these 24 years, armed with bat and helmet looking upwards to invoke divine blessings. He need not have worried because he was carrying the prayers of a billion people. And if all that wasn’t enough then the crowd was so loud, so wild that it shook the very foundations of Wankhede Stadium.

In short, Sachin was trying to keep things as normal as he could. But the crowd wanted the best of vintage Sachin after he was given a guard of honour by Darren Sammy and his mates.

He took his time to settle down and the crowds remained in hushed silence because it was almost like a test of their own patience even as the ‘Sachin, Sachin’ chant was reverberating across the Stadium.