A win and a very special Sachin-Dravid moment

No, there is no final paradise, no mukammal jahaan. Sachin did not get his century, and Dravid got out but we won, and Laxman was younger brother to Ram until the banvaas ended, and when the elder brother was gone, Laxman took the Windies’ Lanka all on his own. But there was a moment on the third evening, when Sachin scored his fifteen-thousandth run or was it fifteen million, when Dravid and he embraced like school-chums, and I felt time turning over so sweetly. And perfection was ours for that moment. The two of them have played for India for a combined total of thirty-seven years - oh, my - and scored a combined total of six zillion Test runs. And they are good for many and many more. As the Delhi winter sighed, the two of them were young again – and everything was in order again, and England forgotten, and the Windies were winded – the Kotla was king, once and forever… Now, if this Windies team had been any of the teams of Sobers or Lloyd or Richards, there is no way we would have won. I saw Richards loft a ball into the football stadium in ’74 – in this team, they could not loft it out of the cricket ground. [caption id=“attachment_127952” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Rahul Dravid congratulates Sachin Tendulkar after the latter scored his 15000th run in Test cricket. AP”] [/caption] But… but… but… this is not ’74, and we should not compare but we must for quality is quality, and Dravid and Sachin and Chanderpaul are quality. Laxman can be when his wrists wring their magic and Sehwag is Kwality, not only quality. And what a leveler our beloved game is – Dhoni is not out in hundreds of one-day innings, and in two Test innings he scores a duck and then is almost out first-ball in the second attempt – oh, my… And, as India won today, I was shooting for a film, and no one – I repeat – no one was interested in whether Sachin would score a century, much less whether we would win or not. How the world has turned and twisted. I remember shoots back in the 70’s when the entire crew – from star to starlet and back again – would gather around the transistor between shots to hear how Gavaskar was doing – and he scored only 35 international hundreds, not 99 – and Manmohan Desai, that genius of the fable, was so addicted to cricket that he would play at lunch and tea breaks, and started his own team on Lamington Road where he used to live – the board for the club still hangs from the balcony where his life ended – oh, my… When Sachin heaved across the line and the ball kept low, he was out. When the ball kept low to Laxman – what a sound that is – he did not heave, but caressed, and the ball glided away to areas of perfection others cannot even dream about. Watch slideshow with images from the match [fpgallery id=312] Now, let us be a bit critical. Yuvraj exudes negative energy, for whatever reason, just as Harbhajan had begun to. Let us get Kohli into the side as soon as possible and Aaron – energy all the way – positive and quick… even fast. And then Raina – positive energy again – and then let us celebrate the greatness of Dravid and Sachin and Laxman down under this winter – this Aussie summer – as we beat the kangaroos at their own game. Sachin – he even smiled, and his shots were so crisp – in the next Test if he attacks a little more, he will have his hundredth – which is such an unbelievable figure that we cannot even think about it – and he is still at Shivaji Park – he is still young – he just has to keep on playing, without taking any breaks. That is the key; that is the lock; that is the game.

A win and a very special Sachin-Dravid moment

The two of them have played for India for a combined total of thirty-seven years and scored a combined total of six zillion Test runs. And they are good for plenty more.

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