Sachin, Sydney and a lesson in restraint
As Rohit, Virat and Rishabh face scrutiny for the MCG loss, the Tendulkar classic from 2003-4 can inspire them
Sydney: Sydney is many things to the world. It is Australia’s city of superlatives. It is the iconic Opera House. It is the Harbour Bridge. It is the Bondi beach. It is Darling Harbour. But to many cricket-mad Indians, it is one thing alone — Sachin Tendulkar’s 241*. And as the cricket moves there for the final Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, the knock still resonates deeply.
It still counts as the most fascinating innings of Tendulkar’s career. For this is where he put his ego and his cover drive aside and humbled himself while acknowledging the greatness of the game. To watch it was part marvel, part pain. If you have worked on a skill all your life, it becomes a reflex action. It just happens as instinctively as blinking. But he cut it out — he was challenging his own natural order of things.
In his autobiography Playing it My Way, Tendulkar revealed how he went to the same restaurant in Sydney as he did on the eve of the match because he wanted his luck to continue. And there is another backstory to the Tendulkar masterclass in Sydney: a bet with his brother.
“I was playing well in that series but not getting big scores. I would make 30-40 runs and then throw my wicket away by attempting a big shot. I remember having a conversation with my brother (Ajit Tendulkar) and he told me that my shot selection was letting me down.
“So, before the fourth Test in Sydney, I told my brother that I wouldn’t get out in the match. When I walked out to bat, I realised that the Australians had planned to bowl in that channel outside the off-stump to frustrate me. So, I decided there and then that I would leave the deliveries outside off-stump and wait for them to bowl straight at me.
“I ended up scoring 241 runs without hitting a single cover drive. I was determined that no matter how many runs I scored, I wouldn’t attempt that shot. I went on to remain not out in the second innings as well and was happy to win the challenge I had taken up with my brother.”
A genius exercising restraint and it wasn’t even a planned tactic — “there and then” he decided that he wasn’t going to give the Aussies what they wanted. Eventually, they came to him and that’s when he picked runs on the leg side. The knock lasted 436 balls and 613 minutes.
When Steve Waugh was later asked about the innings, he described it as a learning experience.
“We had been getting him out edging to the cordon in the previous Tests. And he didn’t play the cover drive at all in the final Test. To me that showed incredible fortitude, mental strength and discipline. To me, that was a lesson even in my last match. I was still learning from other players around me,” Waugh had said.
This wasn’t a dour innings. He still played some gorgeous cuts, elegant flicks and trademark straight drives. But on his way to scaling another peak, Tendulkar showed that sometimes greatness is about what you will yourself to not do. Any sport, at the best of times, is a mental battle even for the greats.
And that is something the current India team can learn. Just as Waugh did.
Perhaps cricket, as the 19-year-old Australia opener Sam Konstas said, has changed. The strokes are different — a ramp of today might be the cover drive of yesteryear. And this isn’t about the shots you play. Rather, it is about when you play them. Will the four or six get your team closer to victory? Will it shake up the bowler? Will it serve a greater purpose?
In the press conference after the Melbourne Test, Australia skipper Pat Cummins said the first hour of the day took the win away from India.
“We had a good first session and it kind of took the win out of the equation for them,” Cummins said. “Then we could really go in for the attack with plenty of catchers and didn’t have to worry about the runs as much.”
Even though India knew what they needed to do, they weren’t able to keep at it long enough. At a certain point, the aggressive instinct took over. Virat Kohli still went for the cover drive, Rishabh Pant still went for the glory shot and Rohit Sharma, after showing so much restraint initially, finally gave in to temptation. They would all have regretted the shots no doubt but the match was lost.
Sydney is a chance for redemption for the batters; a chance to square the series and retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy, and if all of that isn’t enough inspiration they will, just like us all, always have Tendulkar and his 241 not out to fall back on.
