Sunday, September 21, 2008

It’s Tendulkar all the way

Dumbfontain, 21, 2028: When the giant indoor arena’s top closed with a little less than a 100 million people – or should I say creatures – a lot of cloud loomed over the Earth’s future in the first edition of this Intergalactic Cricket Cup. Having played the game for nearly 150 years now it would be nothing short of a shame to be kicked out of the tournament in the very first round.

The team needed someone to rise and produce a performance exhibiting the heritage of the cricket in earth. And who else can do this better than our very own Sachin Romesh Tendulkar, the senior most statesman of the game.

The toss was won by the earth and they let the opposition - Octopert bat first. Considering the bowling and fielding strength of the Octopertians, the earth’s decision was a rather defensive move. The eight legged, ten foot creatures have proved to be extremely agile in the field and lightning quick with the ball. The team might have decided to take the upper hand in the game by bowling well.

The team worked to its plans. The initial spell of Arjun Tendulkar proved vital. His initial couple of bursts forced the Octopertians to the backfoot. He was provided adequate support by William Pollock, who bowls at an extraordinary pace for someone from the earth.

The Octopertians managed to recover in the middle overs with some clean hitting by {5F012453-B612-4d6e-A3A9-3036A453A8E1}. The partnership between him and {F1093674-5D42-4f52-8A2B-98E8B9B65C27} was turning out to be lethal. It required the man with the golden hands – Sachin to break this partnership. His reputation of breaking the partnerships remains intact. His slow leg-spinners proved effective. He tightened the screws with another couple of wickets in the death overs and returned with the figures of 3/10, his best in this format of the game. The Octopertians managed a descent if not formidable score of 112/6 from 19.4 overs before they were all out.

The earth’s innings started with {2FA45310-D45A-4b0e-9008-F092071F853A} picking up the important wicket of Stephen Marsh. Marsh was dealt with an ultra fast yorker, for which he had no answer. He was soon followed by Kataragedera(Yes, with Srilankan’s you just have to roll your lips and make a noise to get a name) and _____ (Cant think of a name yaar.. :( ). Just when it looked like Octopertians were taking the game away from the earth, Arjun Tendulkar came in and provided the much needed support for his father. Together they put on a 64 run partnership in which Arjun displayed a lot of grit and character. A little lapse in concentration saw him give him an easy catch to the fielder at the covers.

From then on it was master blaster who ruled the game. He pelted the bowling all over the park with an array of shots. His flick on the back foot off {2FA45310-D45A-4b0e-9008-F092071F853A} stood out of all and a six down the track off {XFA17U80-Q4YA-4b0e-UYS8-F09O1ER473D} reminded one of his knock at Sharjah in 1996 against Shane Warne, where even the sand storms had to make way for Sachin to resume the innings.

He made it a no contest and earth romped home with 6 wickets to spare in 15.2 overs with Sachin scoring an unbeaten 83.

In the post match conference, Octopertian’s captain {F1093674-5D42-4f52-8A2B-98E8B9B65C27} said that he had just witnessed the best knock of his lifetime, or even the entire Universe’ lifetime. He had words of praise for the young talents of the earth.

Sachin said there was no pressure at any point of the game and he always thought if there was one good partnership, earth could romp home easily. He said he preferred the longer version of the game (20 overs) and has no intentions of being part of the limited overs team (5 overs). When asked about his fitness, he accepted that tennis elbow has been niggling him for a while and he would undergo another surgery after the tournament.

For a question on his retirement he said he will think about it when he fails to deliver what he is capable of. If God were here this day, he would have been proud of what the master blaster had produced. No wonder, the entire world went celebrating this much needed victory.

Edit: Prompted by a dumb reporter's stupid to question to Sachin on when he is going to retire. x(