So this is a flat track and Tendulkar for the second consecutive time in test matches, comes in to bat after 40 overs and more than 175 runs on the board. Sounds like the ideal platform to cut loose? Sure, in normal cases that would be true- but here is how the calculations work out:
1. In approx 50 overs, India are 200 for 3 with Tendulkar and Ganguly batting. On this pitch, a score of 400 will perhaps loose the match, or at least give England some chance to put India back in (the pitch does not have any scary bounce, just a bit more than what batsmen would expect, from time to time)... Moreover, a team which won the toss on this pitch should bat nearly two days or at least 150 overs (110 overs is a minimum any side should plan to bat on most pitches which are fair to both bat and ball).
So at about 50th over losing 3 wickets is tricky for sure.
2. Tendulkar therefore continues to dot it out, aided by England bowling the legside stuff (one shot bowling!), expecting him to glance it into leg-slip, or chip it to short leg (and if not, give a single to fine leg). The English approach is fine under 'normal' matches where you need to keep the run rate in check from overs 50-80, and yet hope that Tendulkar would try to work it around.
3. However, Tendulkar had other plans- to dot it out all the way to 30 overs past the second new ball (remember the unfortunate way Vaughn got out in the last test during the second new ball phase- allowing Zaheer to clean up the lower middle order). A strike rate of 35-40% will not matter- you would be 15-20 runs fewer than needed, but it is important that the rest of the lower middle order bat well after the second new ball- when bowlers are in their sixth or seventh spells. This 'positional aspect' of the lower order batting after 110 overs was the target, and Tendulkar achieved it with Ganguly and Laxman doing normal scoring off normal bowling. Only then did Tendulkar attack the bowling, when it was ensured that the team will now get a good shot to play 150 overs or more, without being bundled out in the second new ball overs.
4. Obviously, nobody expected Kumble to score a century. However, with Dhoni and the tail, on a good track- with bowlers being half-dead, India could hope to add 100 odd runs to reach about 550 by tea. They did that and more!
5. Kumble made 100 off about 190 balls, Tendulkar made 82 WITH 192 balls. If a team has to bat 150 overs (900 balls), one of the top order batsman must get a big hundred. Tendulkar did it with 192 (balls, not runs). A costly miss by Prior to drop Tendulkar when he had not yet played 100 balls!
Will Tendulkar bowl some legspin- full and wide outside of off stump- since England have to try to score some quickly? We need to wait and watch.
Also, was the -inswinging down the legside line to Tendulkar- similar to Sir Alec Bedser to Sir Don Bradman?
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