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- By Parinda News Bureau, March 20, 2006, 12:34 IST
Mumbai: Till the other day, Sachin Tendulkar was considered God of cricket by millions of fans and Mumbai to him was what Calcutta is to Saurav. Yet, thousands of Mumbaikars who had come to witness him play, humiliated him when he couldn’t deliver.
Sachin was booed by cricket fans in his home ground and in a Test match that is a landmark in his illustrious career.
Anguish writ large on his face, his eyes downcast, the batting legend walked back to the Indian dressing room at the Wankhede Stadium after yet another failure out in the middle. He had flirted with disaster by nicking James Anderson to the wicket keeper after making one run when India needed all his batting skills to fight out England in the third and final Test here.
Loud boos resounded in the packed stadium from the very fans who for years have treated him like a demi-god. "Tendulkar is like a God in India," Australian opener Matthew Hayden had written five years ago.
In this Test match, his 132nd, Tendulkar became the most capped Indian player in history. It was a special occasion but he had nothing special to offer.
In the last six Test matches, Tendulkar has averaged 18.66, having aggregated 112 runs in six innings.
The Mumbai batsman has scores of 14, 23, 26, 16, 28 not out, 4 and one in his last six Test outings.
Tendulkar, who was felicitated by the Indian Cricket Board in front of an appreciative audience yesterday for becoming the most capped Indian Test player, must have been rattled to hear jeers emanating from the same stadium.
It was the first time ever that the Wankhede Stadium crowd had booed the world Test ton record holder, who had scored a century in the opening first class match of his career on this very ground 17 years ago. Today, he occupied the crease for over half an hour after coming to the crease at the fall of the second wicket (Wasim Jaffer) on 24.
He resisted the temptation to go for his shots before a wide ball from Anderson lured him into a drive that he essayed without moving his feet at all.
His soft dismissal, combined with those of openers Virender Sehwag (6) and Wasim Jaffer (11), clearly upset the huge holiday crowd of over 35,000.
The Wankhede crowd too had booed another legend from Mumbai, Sunil Gavaskar, off the field in his last international innings against England in the 1987 World Cup semi-final after he fell cheaply to England swing bowler Philip Defreitas.
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