History in Chennai

It was a history of sorts created in Chennai today. Perfect man to do the honors. A Mumbaikar and an Indian to do the honors to give us a joy after 11/26. Test cricket won, the spirits of cricket won and so did England too in coming back and playing their best cricket ignoring security issues.

Close to full crowd in last 2 days, the Test cricket won. Nobody spent a tear on cancelation of Champions League. The test cricket returned in the venue of the country which has seen classics like 1986 Tie test, 1999 Test against well Pakistan, 2001 against Australia. And defying the weather and terror threats out of Terroristan the Chennai crowd won once again.

Having being outplayed for 4 days, Indians bounced back in style to win the Test match. This is the pinnacle. Doesnt get better than this. Indians defied the 4th innings jinx, the turning pitch, menacing Flintoff, dangerous Swann, turned Panesar to Warne and won the Test in style.

Yuvraj was the stand out in the 4th innings. Not only he sealed his place for a while in the XI, but also showed sense of urgency after Laxman fell. Indians are fast becoming the supreme Test playing country and they would be the worthy replacement for Aussies as # 1.

And this was set up nicely on day 4 by Virender Sehwag and helped in the morning by good knocks by Gambhir and Laxman, followed by Yuvraj Singh.

But the man who did it today was nobody but Sachin Tendulkar, the GOD of Indian cricket. He was being pressurised to retire post Lankan series. Since then he has hit 3 100s in 5 Tests in India. He was having supposed bad 4th innings record, doesnt play in crunch situations and he is selfish.

The man dedicated this 100 to Mumbai victims. So little and irrelevant is cricket before what happened in Mumbai, but the man rose above the grief and showed the way to the world. I salute the man for his excellence. I know critics (read bloggers) would still raise some doubts and point to flaws of his innings, but then who bothers. Tendulkar is GOD and he has shown it today by his excellent 100, which could be his BEST.

Dhoni led the team, but it was again a team effort. Himself and Bhajji in batting in 1st innings, Zaheer and Ishant in bowling in 2nd innings, Ganbhir, Viru, Yuvraj, Laxman in 2nd innings….Team effort….

Well done Indians and you have made us proud once again, a momentary relief from the immense pain of 11/26. More stuff for the neigbhours to bark on.

We rock, India rocks and so does England. For their spirits, for their resilience and for their love of Test cricket.