It’s February 24, 2010, and the crowd at Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior are ecstatic as they are witnessing one of the greatest ODI innings of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s long and glorious career. Yes, after 21 illustrious years in international cricket, the Master Blaster still looks at his best of form and there’s no stopping to it. And, mind you, it is against a strong South Africa bowling attack spearheaded by THE Dale Steyn. But the Indian batting lineup hasn’t been so kind on Steyn either.

After having won the toss, MS Dhoni had opted to bat first on a favourable Gwalior pitch. But it was only a matter of time that South Africa got rid of Sehwag and broke the opening partnership. However, that didn’t stop Sachin at all who had started off the innings with shots concocted with god-like timing and placement. The flat pitch, that definitely favoured the batsmen, left the Protea bowlers under pressure especially in the presence of Tendulkar who had 21 years of experience in squeezing out full deliveries past the covers and off his pads. There was no other choice for the bowlers but to wait for God himself to make a mistake, but that is an oxymoron. While it was Tendulkar’s sense of placement that left the field setup negated, the quick outfield did the rest of the job for the master. 

Tendulkar was ruthless on his way to reaching his first fifty off 37 balls and his century off just 90 deliveries. Meanwhile, the South African seamers kept on making the mistake of trying to bowl too fast and as a result, sent down too many full tosses and full deliveries. Even the fairly unplayable yorkers remained fleeting and Tendulkar found gaps every time. Moreover, Karthik and Pathan squeezed off big sixes giving more power to the legendary batsman and his imminent form. Just a few overs following Sachin reaching his fifth 150 in ODIs, Pathan was dismissed and Dhoni joined in for another great partnership that would go into the three figures. 

He had scored a coruscating 175 in a home game against Australia last year and he went past that score today by towering a SIX off van der Merwe’s delivery. And following that, he is already past his previous best score of 186* against New Zealand, more than a decade ago, with a casual flick to deep square leg for a single. Meanwhile, the presence of MS Dhoni meant that too much running wasn’t in the picture as Dhoni sailed his way to a 35-ball 68, crafting well-muscled fours and sixes, without tiring Tendulkar who stayed on the crease for all 50 overs of India’s innings. 

We’re still in the first innings and even though India are close to a gigantic total of 400, it doesn’t matter yet. The result of the game doesn’t matter, wouldn’t matter. All that matters is the man of the moment, Sachin Tendulkar and the never-seen-before feat that he is going to achieve next unless something really unfortunate happens. As already mentioned before, those muscling shots from Dhoni in the previous over and the first ball of Langeveldt’s final over has the pressure on the bowlers. The crowd has their eyes set on the greatest Indian cricketer, who has exactly 17597 runs in ODIs at this point of time, that the world has ever seen. Sachin, on strike, is batting for a moment that can change the course of cricket history. This is the moment. This is everything. 

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