Coca Cola Cup Final, Sharjah, April 24, 1998Tendulkar vs Australia

Updated on: 8 June 2017 5:54 pm

Like ugly people may have invented ‘inner beauty’, teamwork is a concept advertised chiefly by the mediocre. Since the balance of the world is mathematically tilted in favour of the less gifted, teamwork as a sporting democracy has been made out to be an indispensable goodness. But there are times when genius works against such common language.

There were two matches in the summer of 1998 when Sachin Tendulkar needed other men only because the law required such appendage, to single-handedly shame Steve Waugh’s Australia. We choose one of the two, the final of the Coca Cola Cup, as one of India’s greatest moments. There have been more exciting wins than this one, but this match had a certain immediate history.

Construing that the final was a stand-alone game is an occupational hazard of a statistician. To most of us who do not have such an unemotional employment, the final against Australia in Sharjah has to be seen as a sequel to an astonishing league match. What makes our choice more intriguing is that India lost the prequel. But it was one of those defeats when the victors went to the dressing room to lick their wounds. Such was the cruelty of Tendulkar that day.

After Australia had made 284, India needed to score at least 254 to edge New Zealand out on net run-rate, and enter the final. Tendulkar played calmly that day by his standards, except for some violent moments whenever he sighted someone called Kasprowicz. The Australian bowler’s attempts at contributing to Tendulkar’s dirty English, which was limited then, was thanklessly punished. But otherwise Sachin hadn’t lost his mind. Yet.

At the end of the 31st over, a sandstorm hit the ground and the players had to leave covering their faces. When they returned, four overs were knocked off, at the expense of just 8 runs. India needed 276 to win from there or 246 to reach the final. During the interval, something seemed to have happened to Sachin. He slaughtered anything that looked like an Australian bowler, not to mention Kasprowicz. The Australian was humiliated to such an extent that after abusing Sachin initially, he started abusing himself. It suddenly looked like Sachin didn’t want to just see India through to the final. He wanted to go ahead and win. But his stunning innings came to an end when he was wrongly given caught behind. But more was to come on the day of the final when, as it all seemed proper, he turned 25. Kasprowicz had not learnt his lessons. That flaw almost finished his career.

In the fourth over of the Indian innings in the final, which Kasprowicz bowled, Sachin got a bottom edge that almost hit his stumps. As the ball went to fine leg, Sachin took an easy single. He was just a few feet away from Kasprowicz when the bowler launched into a vicious outpouring. It’s not clear what he said but it made Sachin, who normally bends his knees and adjusts his abdomen guard in the face of abuse, give a glare and then ask him what his problem was. From that moment, Sachin’s calm-and-composed innings took a break whenever Kasprowicz came to bowl. He kept muttering dirty things to Sachin who kept spanking him. Eventually, the bowler got him out leg-before to a ball that one, pitched outside the leg stump, two, was clearly going away from the off. Sachin departed looking very annoyed, for 134. But India coasted with ease to the target. At the end of the match, Sachin was gifted an Opel Astra, and he graciously accepted the loose change.

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