My ton will act as balm for Mumbaikars: Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar, after guiding India to a historic win against England, hoped his century will bring back smiles on the faces of people who were traumatised after last month's Mumbai terror attacks.
"This is a very, very special hundred," Tendulkar said after his unbeaten 103 helped India chase down the 387-run victory target set by England. "Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what happened in Mumbai and we are with those who lost their dear ones. These centuries mean nothing but I hope it will bring the smile back on the faces of people in Mumbai."
Describing the terrorist savagery as "extremely, extremely unfortunate", Tendulkar said: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who stood up to that. "We made sure that a terrorist was captured and a lot of terrorists were killed. I would like to salute the jawans, the firemen, the Navy, hotel staff, everybody...."
Tendulkar was asked to comment on the Mumbai killings as a resident of the city. Mumbai was the venue of the first Test, but it was changed to Chennai after the attacks. Tendulkar said it was difficult to play in such circumstances.
On the cricketing front, he said he rated the hundred here among his best. "It is high up there. To score 387 on a track where the ball was bouncing and jumping awkwardly was great."