The stamp of the genius called Sachin Tendulkar was writ all over at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. This, even after the legendary batsman quit cricket long ago. There were cheers with each player coming out of the dugout for the routine practice session. But the loudest of them all were for this most popular cricketer from India ever.
It is not just cricketing aspects that were the focus when Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians clashed in the biggest league game of all for the home team in front of near-capacity crowd. The immaculate mannerism and the modesty of Sachin were too discernible to be ignored.
As he first walked into the ground, the crowd was on its feet.
Then, after exchanging pleasantries with the young faces in his team, the Little Master walked across to greet his illustrious, former teammate V.V.S. Laxman and had a long chat with him. Soon, it was the turn of the Sri Lankan spin legend Muthiah Muralitharan and Ishant Sharma to reach out to Sachin and share a few thoughts.
After all, as they say, class is permanent and no better illustration of this plain fact than these wonderful scenes. Not surprisingly, it was an irresistible temptation for someone like Sachin to roll his arm over with the single-stump on target. To the cheers of his teammates, he scored two out of two – knocking it back. When he picked a piece of grass to show which way the wind was blowing, there was acknowledgement from the fast bowler Lasith Malinga. Even Harbhajan Singh had a brief bowling stint with the Master apparently showing something about the grip.
The Hyderabadis simply seemed to savour every move of Sachin and why not, he always has had a special affinity with the venue having played arguably one of his finest one-day innings (175) against Australia at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here six years ago.
In a way, it was a rare fixture which also two of the best names in recent times from the city – Pragyan Ojha and Ambati Rayudu – in Mumbai squad. Interestingly, even Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma played for the erstwhile franchisee Deccan Chargers in the IPL and was a familiar figure.
And, it was here that Kieron Pollard heralded his arrival on the big stage with his blistering 17-ball 54 for Trinidad & Tobago against New South Wales in 2009 CLT-20 game. Incidentally, that NSW had David Warner as an opener.
