40 what?

For all the talks of Sachin's waning powers, he's still one of the best in business. The fact that he was superior before shouldn't be held against him now and more so when he proves to be just as effective to the team’s cause. Admittedly he's playing only half of the repertoire of shots that he’s capable of. Surely we’ll never see another innings like his 155 against Shane Warne & co in Chepauk. But even with half his repertoire of shots, he’s better than most of the rest.

And we just saw an evidence of that at Christchurch a couple of days back. In his pomp he could have been more effective, belligerent, entertaining but he wasn't far-off the other day. He may not be dancing down the track and hitting over the top anymore but he’s become more inventive these days. Can you imagine a swept six of a fast bowler? Even I couldn't till I saw Sachin do it! And what about that late (should I say latest) glide to third man off a near perfect yorker, the many varieties of paddle sweeps (in fact some of them should be called reverse straight drives) and that slice over slips of a fast bowler.

As much as we regret missing the once instinctive pull and hook from that blade, let's also celebrate the new found inventiveness in his batting. His batting may not be as exciting as it used to be but it's just as skillful and artistic. A lot of media content has been spent on putting that Sachin's 163 in perspective by reasoning out the smallness of the ground and trueness of the pitch.

Well, when were the pitches not true in ODIs? I'll have to go back at least a decade and hope to recollect something. The small boundaries were a sorry sight but that's always been the case in New Zealand. At least it's better than IPL where even in big grounds, the boundaries were pulled up by more than 10 meters! It was not a great innings by Sachin's standards but still it was an innings worth celebrating and not be demeaned by factors that are just as common everywhere.

It's so ironic that in a country where he is literally worshipped by millions and millions of people, so many of us (sometimes including himself) are not sure of how many hundreds he has scored in ODI's. We all know its 40 odd but the exact number? That’s the problem when you score too many of them. We know it in test matches because Ricky Ponting is close on his heels but in ODI's there's no one in sight and presumably no one will ever be. And that's the measure of the man. He's his own benchmark – however unfair that is!!!