Mon Aug 22 05:53PM
It wasn't Sachin Tendulkar's day - and it wasn't Tendulkar's series.
For a while it looked as if it might be. Resuming on 35 not out in front of an expectant crowd at The Oval, the stage was set. There were 98 overs in the day, and India had to bat long enough to force a draw. Tendulkar had a milestone to reach - his 100th international hundred - and all day on a flat pitch to do it.
But the nearer the Little Master got to the rather large record, the less fitting the innings seemed to be for the occasion.
First things first - Tendulkar's career is the stuff of legend. He played his first Test in the 1980s, and has scored international centuries in four different decades. His run tally in one-day international cricket will surely never be bettered - and his Test record may go the same way.
When he reaches triple figures for India next time, he will set a benchmark every bit as iconic and untouchable as the legendary Don Bradman's Test average of 99.94, or Muttiah Muralitharan's 800 Test wickets.
Look at the margin to the next best. Ricky Ponting - no slouch with the willow - has 69 international hundreds. Tendulkar's mark already towers over it like Chris Tremlett standing next to Ian Bell.
Unlike Bradman, who retired before he had a chance to nudge the average back above 100, Tendulkar will get a chance to set his record right. In fact, it is a near-certainty he will do it. With no intention of retiring, and his place untouchable in the team, the ton will come. Which is perhaps why Cowers found himself feeling that it matters when and how it comes.
Tendulkar had already ridden his luck to get to 72 not out at lunch.
If England had appealed for a stumping as Matt Prior whipped the bails off late on Sunday evening, Tendulkar would not even have made it to the close of play.
If Alastair Cook had held a tricky but gettable chance at short leg shortly before lunch, again, Tendulkar could have had no complaints.
At one point after lunch it began to look as if fate (and England) were determined to get him to the landmark. Which was good for Tendulkar, who batted like a man starting to realise the enormity of what he was on the brink of achieving.
Swann trapped him leg-before, only for the umpire to turn down an appeal which would have been given had the referral system been available. It's hard to believe that Swann, who was growing more and more exasperated that his wicket-balls weren't getting wickets, would not have insisted upon reviewing it. Shortly after, Tendulkar fenced at another Swann delivery, but Prior could not hold on.
Charity and fortune (what else could you call having Kevin Pietersen bowl moon balls as you near a century?) - interspersed, of course, with typically dashing strokeplay - had helped Tendulkar to 91, but despite the vacuum of hope and expectation created by his dismissal at the hands of Tim Bresnan, the right verdict was reached.
In the alternate world where Tendulkar scored his century today, a personal landmark would have covered up, just a touch, India's inadequacies in the Test and series. It would have relegated the brilliant Rahul Dravid, voted man of the series by England coach Andy Flower, into the shadows.
It might even have meant that the series would be remembered, in time, for Tendulkar's ton, rather than England's dominance. Take a look back at England's near-whitewash of the West Indies in the Caribbean in 2004. Did you think of Steve Harmison's seven for 12 first - which turned the series irrevocably England's way - or Brian Lara's unbeaten 400, scored on a featherbed of a pitch in Antigua with the series long-gone at 3-0?
When the innings ended his team-mates reminded us of India's shortcomings. From 262 for three to 283 all out, the tourists collapsed quicker than a European stock market, as if Tendulkar's failure necessitated the team's failure.
Of course, having stressed the need for the milestone to be made at a more opportune, meaningful time, and in a more significant way, Tendulkar will probably now reach the total clubbing a century in a dead rubber in the one-day series in Cardiff in mid-September. The stuff of boyhood dreams and all that. But let's not be too downcast that we didn't see it today.
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TALKING POINT OF THE DAY: The ICC award a Mace, of all things, to the world's number one Test side! Many had no idea until the trophy turned up - but is it a contender for sport's most bizarre award? Leave your thoughts below!
USER COMMENT OF THE DAY: "Bell and Pietersen each score a double hundred and a 150 in the series and don't get a look-in for man of the series. Have England really been that good? You know I think they have." Bobito marries user comment of the day with a contender for a stat of the day.
TWEET OF THE DAY: "England must be world's best. Whatever happens at Oval, they've beaten all nine Test oppos by an innings in the last series they faced them" Simon Wilde takes a leaf out of Bobito's book, coupling Tweet of the day with a contender for stat of the day.
STAT OF THE DAY: History didn't happen at the Test - but it did in the subcontinent. Lasith Malinga became the first bowler in the history of the game to take three international hat-tricks when helped reduce Australia from 210 for five to 211 all out in the final ODI of the series in Colombo.
SNAP OF THE DAY: James Anderson didn't have the best of times with the ball today - but as this photo proves beyond all reasonable doubt, it's because he is a ghost.
The mace looks like one of those solar powered garden lights or a stunted crossing beacon.
From ann622 on Mon Aug 22 06:08PMyou are talking @#$%, i think it would have been very fitting for the wee man to score his 100th international century today at the oval. most batsmen who get to a hundred will have given a chance or two!
i just can't get your way of thinking!From dougiemacphail on Mon Aug 22 06:33PM
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