Sachin. God. Says it all.

So, i managed to get inside Wankhede today. Amongst the few that are privileged. *phew*. Watched the first ball and the last ball and every ball played in between those two, and there was only one chant that was there. That was SACCHINN…. SACCCHIIIINNNN!!!. Though also ishant sharma’s name was chanted but that was an altogether different reason.

The atmosphere was electrifying. The stage was set. The who’s who of the cricking world and other powerful personalities were present to witness the greatest player the game has seen. A player who is very strictly and genuinely followed as a religion and god in itself. A player, who when touches the ball on the field just to throw it on to the bowler, the stadium erupts into noise. Enough has been said about this man, and sometimes nothing has been said, because any person who has watched a single ball bowled in a match involving India knows what he means to people.

I was sitting in front of a man aged 65 odd years who was shouting, jumping, dancing, celebrating sachin’s very presence. At his age, he managed to that effortlessly and there was a genuine show of happiness on his face. He was unfazed as to what the temperature was, or whether people thought he was some old lunatic, he had the best day of his life. Along with that, i am very sure that a significant part of him was sad and dying.

Coming onto the match, the men from Caribbean were never going to be a match for the Indians, who are desperately wanting their team-mate and their god to go out on a high. Unlike kolkata, Shami was not the man in the limelight, it was spinner Ojha who managed to get 5 wickets and bowled out the visiting team for a paltry score of 182. This was obviously not helped by India’s poor showing in the field, dropping 3 sitters in the slip cordon.

Indian batsmen came all out guns glazing in the second innings, scoring at 5.9 run rate to reach 77/0. Dhawan and Vijay played shots timed perfectly, almost as easy as it could get. Shillingford though had different plans, bowling a 2 wicket maiden to get both the openers out.

And only in India the crowd cheers at the fall of their countryman, but only because their god was coming to give his blessings one last time. Admist all the hype and excitement, sachin played a confident innings with perfectly timed shots, and pujara gave him absolute support from the other end to make sure India are only 25 short of Indies total at the end of the day.

Today a mother proudly watched her son bat for the first time. A coach saw his disciple mesmerize the 28000 odd spectators and a countless number of viewers. A brother saw his younger brother touch heights again. A proud wife saw the respect her husband receives. A girl and a boy saw their father at the peak of his fame. But all I saw and my fellow spectators saw was….

OUR GOD!!!

stay tuned for the next 4 days updates. Reviews are more than welcome.