Glorious Tendulkar inspires carnival to light up the nation

At 9.30pm on Saturday, a friend writes from Bombay, all that was in sight at Marine Drive, the city's most famous stretch, was a police van absorbing the silence. At 9.45, it became the biggest, brightest carnival he had seen. Gangs of motorbikes appeared with flags, fireworks started and never stopped, and it seemed the night would never end.

About the same time at Centurion, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly started a press conference. "For one-and-a-half years," said Tendulkar, "people have been coming up to me and saying: 'You're playing Pakistan on March 1.' I'm just happy that everyone at home has a smile on their face." Ganguly was content to call it a "relief".

Relief it had been for the Indian cricketers. Though they publicly played down the confrontation, they conceded in private conversations after the victory that the force of reaction had left them wondering: "What if we had lost?"

Even in victory, a teenager was killed in Ahmedabad when police opened fire on fans and instances of vandalisms and communal clashes have been reported.

So, spare a thought for Waqar Younis. He was booed by his own supporters at the presentation ceremony, and this was a sporting lot who, from the moment the teams shook hands before start of play until the last public announcement pleading with them to not rush the field, had played by the right spirit.

What a match this was, and what an innings Tendulkar played. Consider this for theatre: Shoaib Akhtar is flying in with the wind on his back, 273 on the board, and itching to make his first over count after he has publicly targeted all 11 of India's batsmen. He bangs it short but wide and Tendulkar, rather than let it go, glides it over backward point for six. Next Shoaib angles it on to middle, and this is swirled poetically to the boundary at square leg. So Shoaib puts in on a length, right on off stump, and this is blocked, no more, to the long-on fence, a stroke so virginal and timeless, it should be captured in stone.

Eighteen runs have come off the over. Everywhere is a tricolour. Centurion is a blur of noise. Tendulkar's greatness slaps you in the face.

This innings could have veered away into the realm of the merely excellent at two points. First, when Virender Sehwag and Ganguly were lost to Waqar Younis in two balls with the total on 53, and lesser players would have waited and watched. Second, when Tendulkar began suffering cramp after reaching 50, which eventually forced him to call for a runner, a move he had never resorted to previously in international cricket, because "only I know exactly how hard I've hit the ball."

Perhaps it was destined not to work, for the runner never once crossed the pitch, as Shoaib finished Tendulkar on 98, that had come off 75 balls. At least he was blessed that this team had the mettle to see it through after he had provided such inspiration.

At a ripping Test against the same opponents at Madras four years ago, Tendulkar and India chased a similar fourth-innings total, and after a wonderful century played with an aching back, Tendulkar fell a few yards short of home, and a gutless India lost. Here, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh absorbed the shock and then began to come hard at the Pakistanis who did not have a plan beyond good intentions and a lot of energy.

It is a pity that a team with so much potential to thrill failed to show up at this tournament. Yet at least Pakistan had saved their best batting of the Cup for this day. Saeed Anwar, happily, not just for his team, but cricket romantics everywhere, approached his most charming. With a slithering, angled bat, he pickpocketed runs behind the wicket, and it needed a special yorker from Ashish Nehra to terminate his century.

There was no such return, however, for Inzamam-ul-Haq. He walked out to huge roars of: "Alu" (potato in Hindi, reportedly how a heckler in Toronto years ago incited Inzamam into leaping over the fence for a brawl), and, perhaps once more incensed, straightaway jumped down the pitch for a lofted four. In a matter of minutes, he was run out. It was so vintage, it felt contrived.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN

Saeed Anwar b Nehra 101

Taufeeq Umar b Khan 22

Abdur Razzaq c Dravid b Nehra 12

Inzamam ul-Haq run out 6

Yousuf Youhana c Khan b Srinath 25

Younis Khan c Mongia b Khan 32

Shahid Afridi c Kumble b Mongia 9

Rashid Latif not out 29

Wasim Akram not out 10

Extras (b2, lb7, w11, nb7) 27

Total (for 7, 50 overs) 273

Fall: 58, 90, 98, 171, 195, 208, 256.

Did not bat: *Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar.

Bowling: Khan 10-0-46-2; Srinath 10-0-41-1; Nehra 10-0-74-2; Kumble 10-0-51-0; Ganguly 3-0-14-0; Sehwag 4-0-19-0; Mongia 3-0-19-1.

INDIA

S R Tendulkar c Younis Khan b Shoaib Akhtar 98

V Sehwag c Shahid Afridi b Waqar Younis 21

*S C Ganguly lbw b Waqar Younis

M Kaif b Shahid Afridi 35

R Dravid not out 44

Yuvraj Singh not out 50

Extras (b1, lb3, w19, nb5) 28

Total (for 4, 45.4 overs) 276

Fall: 53, 53, 155, 177.

Did not bat: D Mongia, A Nehra, A Kumble, Z Khan, J Srinath.

Bowling: Wasim Akram 10-0-48-0; Shoaib Akhtar 10-0-72-1; Waqar Younis 8.4-0-71-2; Shahid Afridi 9-0-45-1; Abdur Razzaq 8-0-36-0.

Umpires: R E Koertzen and D R Shepherd.

India won by six wickets.