Sachin Tendulkar had to fight emotions in his last international match to bat

Sachin Tendulkar played his last international match against WI at Wankhede in 2013.

Sachin Tendulkar | IANS

Sachin Tendulkar played his last Test and international match against the West Indies, at the Wankhede Stadium, from Nov 14-16, 2013.

Fans were in tears after Sachin Tendulkar went back after scoring 74 runs in the first innings, many knew that this was his last innings in international cricket, as India won the match by an innings.

What was the Indian cricket great going through while facing the bowlers in an emotional game? He talked about his last international innings at a book launching event in Mumbai.

Sachin's mother had come to watch him play. The 45-year-old divulged she had never watched him play and he wanted her to visit the stadium to watch him play first and last time.

"The reason for having the match in Mumbai was because my mother hadn't seen me play ever. Right from the day, I started playing school cricket she hadn't seen me play at all. So I told her, 'I have been leaving home for last 30 years at least you should come once and see why I left home'.

"Everything (all arrangements in Wankhede) was done for my mother according to her requirements. She came and sat in the president's box, my friends were there sitting around her. The moment West Indies won the toss chose to bat, they all decided let's go home. So one of my friend's, he thought differently and said the way they are batting you never know India might end up batting this evening. And we actually did," he said.

Sachin had batted around half an hour that day after India bowled out West Indies for 182 right at the stroke of the tea break. Tendulkar had to fight his emotions to focus on the game. It was difficult for him to control his emotions when the cameraman focused on his mother and she was on the big screen.

"I went and I batted for almost 20-25 minutes till stumps. And right before the last over was bowled, I think Darren Sammy was on his runup and suddenly on the mega screen I see my mother, there was a closeup on her. And that priceless moment was when she also realized that she was on screen and that was happening to her for the first time in her life.

"I kept trying to keep myself in control to face the last over and fighting all those emotions at that time one-by-one, as if the director had decided, after my mother we go to Anjali and then the rest of my family.

"That made things doubly difficult for me and after every ball, I started thinking now who's next. After that, I was constantly telling myself to leave all this behind and concentrate on the next ball. That was an unbelievable experience for me because something like that I never thought.

"As a player, you always tend to visualize your last game because that was a million dollar question in my mind that how would my last game be? Would we end up on the winning side? How would the crowd react? But in all that I never thought I would have to fight this battle of watching my family on the screen which was possibly tougher than any because I felt I got so emotional and my eyes were teary. It would have been a disaster if I had not been able to see the ball properly and I lose my wicket because of that," he added.

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 24 Apr, 2018

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