Sachin
Tendulkar raises his bat up for his 68th Test half-century with a trademark
straight drive off on the second day of the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium
in Mumbai on Friday.
This is the
119th time that Tendulkar crossed the 50-run and he is the only batsman with
this Test cricket history.
India is in
a wonderful position to shut West Indies out of this game. The hosts are more
than capable of doing that and will look to rectify the mistakes committed at
Kolkata.
Day 1 saw
yet with spin-burst from the Pragyan Ojha-R Ashwin combination, on a track that
aided both bounce and spin.
The West
Indies were bowled out for 182 runs earlier and then came a fine start by the
Indian openers.
Tendulkar played
some fantastic strokes and got the crowd going while Pujara also got off to a
fine start.
The hope of
watching Tendulkar bat on the very first day, which had seemed to disappear
when MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to field.
The crowd
stood as one and roared as Sachin made his way to the crease. In a rare
gesture, the entire West Indian team lined up to create a path for him; in an
even rarer gesture, even the two umpires joined the 'guard of honour', one on
either side.
This was,
after all, no ordinary occasion. The designated neutral men felt compelled to
pay respect to the god of cricket.
