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Mohali: At 2.31pm, on a hot Mohali Friday,
Sachin Tendulkar steered Peter Siddle towards the third-man
boundary for three runs to break Brian Lara’s record
for most Test runs. The record stood for nearly two years
after Lara played his final Test and it was inevitable that
Tendulkar would eventually break it. As the day progressed
Tendulkar scored his 50th half-century and became the first
player to cross the 12,000-run mark.
The disappointingly small crowd, built largely of school kids,
immediately got on its feet to salute the feat, and fireworks,
which continued for three minutes, went off at the PCA Stadium.
Tendulkar raised his bat in the air, took his helmet off,
and looked up at the sky, as is his routine when he gets to
a hundred. The Australian fielders rushed immediately towards
him to congratulate him. Ricky Ponting, the man most likely
to challenge his status of being the top run-getter, was the
first man to shake his hand.
This also brought an end to the soap-opera-type frenzied anticipation
for the record. Tendulkar was expected to overtake Lara in
Sri Lanka recently, but he endured a poor series with the
bat, scoring just 95 runs in three Tests. Then in the series-opener
in Bangalore, during a fine match-saving effort in the second
innings, it seemed he would get to the record, but he gifted
his wicket when 15 short. Even today the anxiety around was
palpable. During the time he got to 15, India lost two wickets
in moving from 146 to 179 in 10.2 overs. While he scored at
a fair rate, he didn’t get nearly as much strike during
the period as he would have wanted. While he played 23 balls,
VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly faced 19 each.—Agency |
