Exactly eighteen years to the day today, the late English commentator, Tony Greig produced one of the most memorable cricketing sound-bites on air: “They are dancing in the aisles in Sharjah...Sachin Tendulkar…what a player...what a fantastic player!"
The subject of this unabashed adoration, a 24-year-old Sachin Tendulkar, was in the process of forging a gladiatorial hundred – which now has its pride of place among the greatest ODI innings ever played in the history of the game.
Forever engraved in cricketing folklore as the Desert Storm, Eastern Mirror revisits the scene of one of the most murderous assaults ever unleashed by a batsman inside a cricket arena, and how the legend of Tendulkar was forged in the desert sands of Sharjah.
It was the Coca Cola Cup in 1999, and India was up against a bullish Australia in the final league match on April 22. The tri-nation tournament featured New Zealand as the other team. Looking to book a place in the finals, India were left with a target of 285 after a Michael Bevan century. Back then, a target of 285 would be equivalent to no less than 320 today.
To knock the Kiwis out of equation, India needed to score at least 254. Moreover, in their previous group game India had not beaten the Aussies and defeat appeared certain. With three wins from their first three matches, Australia had already sealed a final berth.
Thirty-one overs into the chase, with India precariously placed at 143/4 and having not scored a single boundary in the previous ten overs, a sandstorm intervened and disrupted play. The revised target was 276 from 46 overs for a win, and 237 to qualify for the finals, when play resumed.
Cue: another storm. Only this time it was the diminutive maestro wreaking havoc with his bat. Tendulkar went for glory, smashing 143 off 131 balls and studded with 9 fours and 5 sixes. No other Indian player scored more than 35 runs that day. India eventually fell 25 runs short of the target but qualified for the finals, thanks to Tendulkar’s batting masterclass.
In retrospection, the sandstorm that interrupted play that day only served to enrich the narrative of Tendulkar. Two days later in the final, on his 25th birthday, he would unfurl yet another monument –a 131-ball 134 – to led India to a six-wicket win.
Those two consecutive encounters with Tendulkar in imperious mood left the Australian bowlers in trauma. Leg-spin wizard, Shane Warne was left in a heap of helplessness; Damien Fleming was in denial mode. It was the innings that led Sanjay Manjrekar to realize that perhaps he was looking at the second best batsman in the history of the game after Don Bradman.
It left a captain of Steve Waugh’s caliber wondering about the fickleness of life, the impermanence of things. It is said that after the game, the Australian bowler Michael Kasprowicz asked Dennis Lillee, the greatest of them all fast bowlers, if he had spotted any weaknesses in the former’s bowling. Lillee’s response? "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."
