Despite a batting line up of Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman, Dhoni, Gambhir and Yuraj Singh, England, and for that matter, the rest of the world knew that it was Tendulkar’s wicket that stood between them and victory. Tendulkar must have known it too. He also has his own ghost of Chennai past. It was here in 1999 that he had scored a magnificent 136 to lead India against Pakistan, but lost his wicket 17 runs short of victory and had to watch on in horror as the last 4 Indian wickets failed to get those remaining runs for victory. The word making the rounds that day was that Tendulkar was inconsolable after the lost. He was soundly criticized by all and sundry. His mentor Sunil Gavaskar admonished him, saying that when you have a job to do, you do not leave it to someone else. Tendulkar certainly learnt that lesson for yesterday when Yuvraj played a shot off Monty [Panesar] that landed between short midwicket and long-on, he immediately called him for a midwicket conference telling him: 'Wait till the last run is scored. We need to make sure that both of us complete the runs'. It certainly did not help Tendulkar that his detractors, and even disgruntled fans, often harp that he seldom scores runs when it matters. Not necessarily true, mind you. Yet, it was against this backdrop that Tendulkar scripted his masterpiece. From the first ball he faced, it was clear that he was in the zone. He was the epitome of grace under pressure, and in the end it only seemed fitting that he scored the winning runs, a paddle sweep for four. It also took him to his 41st test hundred and one that he described as very, very special.
It is a measure of the man that in the moment of his greatest triumph, Tendulkar again showed his humility when he said at the press conference that: “Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what has happened. This hundred will give a certain amount of happiness to people but what happened in Mumbai, it's very hard to recover from that." Added Tendulkar, "What happened in Mumbai was extremely unfortunate and I don't think by India winning or my scoring hundreds, people who have lost their dear and loved ones would feel better. It's a terrible loss and our hearts are with them. All I can say is that in whatever way we can contribute to make them feel better, we'll make that effort."
He also acknowledged his opponents saying: "I would like to thank England for coming back. I think it was a terrific gesture on their part." And he remembered to offer a few words of encouragement to teammate Rahul Dravid who is in a batting slump at the moment. "The bad patch that Rahul is going through happens to everybody," he said. "It's nothing to worry about. He is not just a good player, he's a great player. These cycles happen in a career. I don't think Rahul's form or what people are saying is a worry for all of us. He will definitely score runs."
When the day comes and Tendulkar finally hangs up his batting gloves, this glorious game will be the poorer, for it would have lost not only the greatest batsman since Sir Donald Bradman, but, perhaps, its greatest ambassador.