Sachin bowls them over at Eden - TeluguPeople.com News

KOLKATA: The giant man-made canopy of the Eden Gardens had just begun to creep into the greens at the pavilion end. At a distant, the falcons had begun their routine hover. The scattered crowd had begun to twitch and twirl their limbs. The tea-break was nigh.

Then for a brief second, everything, even the falcons and shadows, paused momentarily, caught as they are by something surreally remarkable. The fidgety crowd put aside their siesta and sloth.

The eyes and walls of the stadium converged on a little, familiar frame. God to them and Sachin Tendulkar to cricket academics. And he had just entrusted his floppy-cap and shades with the umpire and traced his run-up.

The ball flipped and flickered between his palms, before with six easy steps, the ball hidden like a grail by the cusp of his right-palm, he sauntered in with the boyish grin that has always marked his bowling.

A slight twitch of his body and the ball fizzed out of stretched palms, more like a frisbee in gentle flight. Until the ball, after its airy reverie, landed, the crowd held their breath in collective awe. Then the heavy sigh.

Sachin special coverage

Such was the roar that made its Mexican waves around the stadium that every ball was rendered lethal. It was as though the batsman was confronted with 20,000 bowlers aiming projectiles at him.

Three seemingly harmless deliveries, and the tantalizingly floated fourth one dipped alarmingly at Shane Shillingford, who in indecision just hung his bat before his pads, trusting the ball will break away from him. Even if it had spun the other way, his stretched legs would have saved him. Or so he might have thought.

Anjali, Arjun relish Tendulkar's outing at Eden

But number eight Shillingford, like many grander batsmen of yore, was left stupefied. For upon pitching, the ball coursed straight and snuck beside his bat to thud onto his pads. His mind might have been as well left blank by the madness and frenzy around him.

Within the split-second Tendulkar took to twist his much-punished body after the follow through to seek the umpire's approval, the crowd had erupted into a collective, impulsive appeal.

Loud as a half-filled Eden Gardens ever can. And how could umpire Nigel Long, who had earlier turned down a close shout, have disapproved of that. He doesn't want to be a pantomime villain in Sachin-land. He studiedly lifted his index finger and the stands just broke into pure delirium.

Sachin Tendulkar: 24 years of glory

The celebration in the middle was as exultant as that through the stands. Fielders converged from distant outposts to swarm the master, who beamed as beam it can. So lost where they in the moment that they didn't even notice that the umpires were halfway through their strides to the pavilion for tea. Fittingly, Tendulkar led the team off the field.

Amidst all these melodrama, shone the genius of Tendulkar the bowler, who now has 200 international wickets in his kitty. He properly set the batsman up. The first ball was the conventional leg break.

The second was the big-spinning googly, though that was pitched outside leg-stump. The third was again a leg-break. The fourth just straightened after pitching.

Eight more high-voltage deliveries later, normalcy returned to the Eden Gardens. For Tendulkar was taken off the attack, and the shadows and falcons resumed their errands.