Published: Nov 07, 2013, 10:36 AM (IST)
Edited: Nov 07, 2013, 10:36 AM (IST)
Anjali Tendulkar (above) and son Arjun Tendulkar flew down to Kolkata in Wednesday morning © IANS (File Photo)
By Derek Abraham
“If only they give him an over,” she hoped. And as luck would have it, Anjali Tendulkar’s wish was MS Dhoni’s command.
“Let’s go out and sit in the stands.” This time, Boria Majumdar, her husband’s official biographer, couldn’t but oblige. The duo stepped out of Box No 3 and grabbed their seats in the BC Roy Clubhouse. “He’s going to get a wicket.” Bingo! Majumdar was left wondering if he was sitting next to a distant relative of Nostradamus. “It was crazy,” he says. “It was like she knew it was going to happen.”
The first day of the first Test may have belonged to Mohammed Shami, but if there were a sponsored segment on TV called ‘Moment of the Day’, Tendulkar’s googly that claimed Shane Shillingford would run away with the cake.
It was the last over before tea and the seventh-wicket pair had added 20 runs. Also, the stand between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Shillingford had lasted over 12 overs.
Enter Tendulkar. First ball: leg-break, no run. Second ball: atrocious delivery, a big-spinning googly pitched outside leg. Spins further, beats Dhoni, four byes. Third ball: leg-break, no run. And then he makes it happen with a straighter one. Tendulkar flights the ball and it dips on the right-hander before thudding into his front pad. Plumb, gone. There’s no way the umpire was going to break more than 40,000 hearts. Not today. Not at the Eden.
Anjali couldn’t contain her joy. It was tea time and she went back into the corporate box. Time for sandwiches, maybe?
The family had no plans to visit the Eden. But when Majumdar and Cricket Association of Bengal supremo Jagmohan Dalmiya requested her to make the trip, she agreed. “Anjali and Arjun (Tendulkar’s 14-year-old son) flew in this (Wednesday) morning. Only Mr Dalmiya and I were in the know. Even Sachin didn’t know they were going to be here,” Majumdar informs. They were joined by four of Arjun’s coaches from Ealing Cricket Club in the UK and a couple of family friends.
A Tendulkar wicket is a rarity, at least in Tests. The last time the maestro struck with the ball, Mark Boucher was at the receiving end (again, lbw). It was the New Year Test of 2011 and Tendulkar had scored the last of his 51 Test hundreds in Cape Town as the contest, and series, ended in a draw.
Sara (Tendulkar’s daughter) is in Bangkok on a holiday and that’s why she missed her father’s 46th Test wicket. But she’ll be there at the Wankhede to watch her ‘baba’. The 14-year-old Arjun, a junior Mumbai cricketer, has elaborate plans. He wants to attend all five days of his father’s farewell Test. When reminded by his mother that he cannot bunk school, the left-arm medium pacer dishes out a beauty: “School will be there for five years, but will I get to see my baba bat after those five days?”
The mother smiles heartily. Arjun needn’t worry. Baba would be home to sign his ‘leave of absence’ note!
Now, that’s a happy family
(The writer is Principal Correspondent at DNA, where the above article first appeared)
