A Far Cry from the past(Just Like that)

This was something that I was telling anu & shrestha the other day.
I don't know why i said this bit it just strike me and I started this.
It was in the end of winter’s of 1999 guess it was Feb or March
India Vs Pakistan (1st test match- chennai)
India had to chase down somewhere in the vicinity of 260-270 odd runs...in the last innings after that fluke innings of sheer madness from the pathan of pak - shahid afridi....
India started badly losing its openers very cheap and then the loss of Dravid and Ganguly in a very strange manner in which the ball from saqlain ricocheted of his boots and into the close in catcher...
India bent and in pain similar to the paining back of one Sachin Tendulkar started the fight back along with good support from nayan mongia who has now lost in the dusty winds of match-fixing history in Indian Cricket....
As Sachin started hitting the ball from the middle and with more regularity the more it started to grapple the spectators and his back...
Soon he was taking India to a famous coming from the back victory not seen much in the history of Indian cricket.But then the fate eventually strikes- saqlain( then the best offie in th world) bowled his doosra and Sachin playing it not anticipating the doosra a shot towards deep mid-wicket but the ball ballooned in the opposite direction. And the man under it was none other than Pakistan's inspirational captain(then) wasim akram. Every one including him and Sachin had their hearts in their mouth as it was such a crucial incident in the match. I still feel had it been some one else in the field other than wasim the chances of dropping that catch (due to the pressure itself) would have gone up by 50%, but not wasim it was his day to be and he took the catch with comfortable ease.And as it turned out India after Sachin could muster only 6 more runs and lost by a narrow margin of 12 runs or so.
So much was I heart broken that I couldn’t imagine what has just happened. After putting in so much and still so far to go had been India’s and in particular that of some Sachin’s story that day. Every purist in the game blamed of sort to Sachin that he should have finished the business and should have seen his side home rather than bow out like that.
In the post match ceremony he was announced as man of the match and that too on being on the losing side, he wasn’t able to come out and take the prize himself as he was getting treated upon for back spasms. In the papers the next day full of stories from the match it was written that after Sachin got out and he went back to the pavilion he saw other players crumble under pressure there was only one thing he did and that was cry!!!
He cried and cried and cried. It is all but natural to feel like that after putting so much effort and against the odds.

At least he showed the courage unlike me to let the tears flow from his eyes where as I was just my numb self.

Thereafter I still feel that an effort to succeed also values just like achieving the success!