Super Sachin and Team India complete an eventful year

New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Numbers alone can never define a
legend called Sachin Tendulkar. Yet it's difficult to do away
with number crunchers when you talk of a legend whose only
competitor over the years has been he himself.
2010 will definitely be an year which will be be etched
in the memories of cricket crazy Indians for two of the most
astonishing feats in world cricket.
The first man to score a double hundred in one-dayers
-- the moment Tendulkar steered South African pacer Charl
Langeveldt for a single, a new chapter in Indian cricket
unfolded at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior.
But the maestro never stops from creating a higher
benchmark for himself which elevates him to a different
pedestal --- many notches above his peers.
That's what happened when he scored the historic 50th
Test century at the Supersport Park earlier this month.
Reaching the pinnacle of any sport is a difficult task.
Even more difficult is to sustain that top position for a
consistent period of time.
In what turned out to be an eventful year in Indian
cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his band of bravehearts did
well to sustain their top position among the Test playing
nations.
There were people who were skeptical about Team India's
dominance in the longer version of the game but those doubts
were put to rest with some consistent performance at home by
Dhoni's men.
If Team India has come of age with some solid
performances in both Tests and ODIs, Sachin Tendulkar made it
even more memorable with two Herculean feats.
It's not that Tendulkar's greatness would have been any
less had he not achieved this dual milestones, but his
burning desire to succeed after having achieved almost
everything in his glorious career of over 21-years make the
millions of cricket crazy Indian fans love him even more with
passage of time.
Tendulkar has made the most telling contribution with
seven Test centuries and over 1500 Test runs but credit should
also go to 'Captain Cool' Dhoni who proved to be an able
general in pressure situations.
The characteristics that separated this current Indian
team from earlier ones is the will to fight their way out of
trouble.
A testimony to that was the nerve-wracking Test match
that India won against South Africa at Eden Gardens to level
the series with Harbhajan Singh getting the last South African
wicket of the final over of the fifth day amidst deafening
support from the partisan crowd.