Contrary to expectations, the Eden Gardens was not jam packed on the first day of Sachin Tendulkar’s 199th Test. Fans eventually filled about three-quarters of the stadium but it was surprising there were empty seats given the massive build up to the game. Still, those who did attend made it clear they had primarily came to watch their hero play his last game in their home stadium.
It started during warm-ups. Tendulkar was cheered wildly whenever he went near a ball, be it cricket ball or football. When Darren Sammy won the toss and chose to bat first, there was a collective groan. Tendulkar would not bat today. It was the biggest possible buzz kill. Yet there was an upside. India bowling first meant Tendulkar would be in the field, even if he would just be standing around most of the time.
Fans roared whenever he was near the boundary. If he turned and waved or clapped, they roared even louder to get him to do it again, which he often did. They even cheered madly when he was just polishing the ball for the bowler. After they did that a couple of times, even Tendulkar was unable to suppress a smile.
On one occasion, Kieran Powell drove Ashwin straight down the ground for four and a loud roar went up from the fans behind the rope. It turned out Tendulkar had run to long on to retrieve the ball. To be fair to the crowd, the roars were much louder when Bhuvneshwar Kumar got rid of Chris Gayle in the very next over.
Tendulkar spent most of the day in front of ‘H’ block, which fans in other parts of the ground did not appreciate. The crowd in ‘D’ block had local boy Mohammad Shami riding the boundary, but that was not good enough. They shouted at him repeatedly to switch places with Tendulkar. “Send Sachin here just for one over”, they cried. Shami ignored them, as did MS Dhoni behind the stumps.
When Tendulkar prevented a boundary with a well placed boot, they cheered loudly not only at his display of fielding, but did so again when the replay was shown on the two big screens in the ground. No opportunity to pay homage to their ‘God’ was to be missed. Of course the loudest roars were heard when MS Dhoni handed Tendulkar the ball just before tea.
West Indies were six down at that point but Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Shane Shillingford had added 20 for the seventh wicket and were looking reasonably comfortable. It took a while for the entire crowd to realise it was Tendulkar who was the new bowler and the roar rose to a crescendo as the realisation spread like a virus across the stadium.
The fans stood and cheered each delivery. This is what they wanted — the opportunity to keep chanting “Sa-chin, Sa-chin.” When Tendulkar appealed for a leg-before decision and the umpire raised his finger, the crowd got so loud you could literally feel the sound vibrate through your body like a base line. Not everyone was surprised by Tendulkar’s bowling though. “Expected Sachin might bowl if wickets were not falling,” TK Bose, sitting in ‘D’ block, said. “And he got the breakthrough.”
Tendulkar was given only one more over after tea but it seemed to satisfy the crowd. Their hero had not only been part of the action, he had taken his first Test wicket in almost two and-a-half years. They had wanted to see Tendulkar one last time and he had rewarded them for their time and attention with something they, TK Bose aside, had not imagined.
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