The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : All eyes on Sachin

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Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

All eyes on Sachin

V. V. Subrahmanyam

Set to achieve another milestone

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

Master blaster: Sachin Tendulkar arrives in city, ahead of the India-Australia ODI, on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD: The stage is set for city’s tryst with destiny. Even as the Ricky Ponting-led Australians and M. S. Dhoni-led Indians have arrived on Tuesday evening, there is predictable excitement in the air.

Batting legend 36-year-old Sachin Tendulkar needs just seven runs to become the first-ever batsman to score 17,000 runs in his 435th One Day International (ODI). An unbelievable achievement considering that he scored his first ODI century only in his 79th match.

Tendulkar has a special affinity with Hyderabad scripting memorable moments for the cricket-crazy fans. Immediately on his return from England in 1990 after scoring his first Test century – again a match-saving one, the school-boy cricketer gave glimpses of why he was rated so highly very early in his career with a typically classy century in the Moin-ud-Dowla the same winter. Who can forget that massacre of the hapless Kiwis – a day after Hyderabad celebrated ‘Deepavali’. For, Tendulkar set the Lal Bahadur Stadium ablaze in 1999 with his career-best score of 186 not out. For all those who were there at the ground and who watched on television, it was an unforgettable experience. “We vividly remember his breathtaking stroke-play and we honestly thought then he would score a double century to achieve another first,” recalls G. Venkatesh, an advocate and a die-hard fan of the little champion. It was a class act for India in that match against New Zealand as in the company of Rahul Dravid who also hit his career-best 153, shut the opponents out of the contest even before the lights were on.

Therefore, the huge roar of welcome he gets when he walks on the Rajiv stadium ground in Uppal on Thursday should not be a surprise. “I think he will play for another three to four years and smash all records so that no one can reach anywhere near him,” remarked Sir Richard Hadlee only the other day, reflecting the sentiments of millions of fans! But Hyderabadis should be eagerly waiting to be there to witness yet another defining moment in cricketing history when this legend goes past another landmark.

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