I want a 200 rupee note with Sachin's photo on it!

My board exams were about to start. The India South Africa series was going on. On 24^th February as usual when Tendulkar was out to bat I had stopped studying. I never knew that I would be watching the world’s greatest ODI inning.

Only twice before in the history of cricket had a player been in the 190s Saeed Anwar and Charles Coventry had both scored 194. But Anwar played with a runner for the most of his inning and Coventry scored against Bangladesh. Other than the two of them, no one had ever come close to a double century in ODIs.

What was so arduous about a double century that only one man in the history of Cricket could boast of having achieved it? After the inning Sachin said 'I looked to put pressure on the bowlers right from the start of the match’. This meant that he was looking to hit the bowlers from the first ball for four. But haven’t we seen Sehwag and Gilchrist do that regularly? Why can’t they score double centuries then?

‘My state of mind was the same throughout the innings’, said Sachin. Maybe that’s what helped him in not getting carried away. He looked in full flow from the start of the inning. He would go deep inside the crease to fast bowlers luring them to bowl fuller and they obliged. He would walk across the stumps exposing his leg stump knowing fully well that bowlers would target the stumps and he dispatched them to the square-leg boundary. The master had indeed cast a spell on the bowlers making them bowl exactly where he wanted them to.

He started with flowing cover-drives and deft touches off his pads and continued to bat the same way till the end. He did improvise along the way but his lateral thinking didn’t make him play a scoop shot or a switch-hit for he didn’t need these shots. Opening the front leg and clearing off-side, walking across the stumps to hit the balls outside off to leg side or using the crease was enough for him. This tells you about the freedom his impeccable technique gives him. There was indeed no need of slogging. This showed the class of the great man. Even at 36 he played the whole 50 over quota and ran not only his but also other’s runs on his own. Truly remarkable!

His 200* came off just 147 balls. He could have got it in the 48^th over but had to wait to come on strike till the last over of the inning. To have reached such a landmark, with a single in the final over, only serves to underline his class and add to the legacy that already surrounds arguably the finest batsman to have played the game. His innings, the 46th one-day century of his career, was typified by wristy strokes, trademark boundary shots and, above all, stamina as he batted through the entire innings.

After this inning everyone from common people to state governments to politicians to cricketers, filmstars wanted him to be conferred the Bharat Ratna. He was congratulated in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and this was the first time I had seen all the political parties agreeing to something. This is the image of the great man in our country.

Sachin Tendulkar deserves the Bharat Ratna and I hope he gets it.