The no-holds-barred strokeplay reminded of his 83 off 43 balls he scored as a 21-year-old, who was pushed as an opener for the first time in New Zealand . The two paced pitch — Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni getting out to sudden snorters — and the rain-stop proved that things were more difficult than that memorable ‘Sharjah sandstorm Tendulkar double bill’ in 1998. And by the way, Tendulkar hit just one six during that famous 93 against Pakistan during WC 2003.

With Tendulkar carrying his bat and being on the pitch for more than three-and-a-half hours — the last time he did this was when he was 26 as scored 186 against New Zealand at Hyderabad — it was also proved that despite being 33, the boots are tied tightly and he will decide the time to hang them.

There are more things to this innings at KL that reminds one of last comeback innings at Nagpur — his long association with one-drop batsman Irfan Pathan. Just the other day, we saw Tendulkar’s long pep talk to the team at nets in the presence of a silent coach and captain who seemed quite pleased to have the aging star play the mentor. It would be interesting to recall that in the days before his October, 2005 comeback, one for the first time had heard about coach’s concept of Tendulkar playing the mentor. The coach knows that to keep the master in mood he needs to be a mentor.

‘It was a special hundred’

... contd.