Delhi: Do you know what Sachin Tendulkar considers the biggest disappointment of his cricket career? The answer is India’s loss to Australia in the 2003 World Cup final. Whenever this World Cup and Sachin Tendulkar are mentioned together, his 673 runs scored in the World Cup (highest) and Player of the Tournament award are mentioned, but the truth is also that in this World Cup, he is playing for Team India. Was the biggest motivator for. That’s why not being able to win the World Cup even after coming close to it, hurts him till today. This team did not reach the finals just like that.
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After the victory against Netherlands in Paarl in the World Cup, when Australia suffered a big defeat by 9 wickets in the second match at Centurion Park, the team’s courage to do something special in the World Cup was shaken. This defeat against Australia had scared us so much that we started wondering how we will survive against other strong teams? It did not take long for Sachin to realize this low morale. Although grandfather Sourav Ganguly was the captain, Tendulkar assumed the responsibility of a senior and asked all the players to assemble. The motivational talks given by Tendulkar then became the biggest inspiration in taking the team to the finals.
Now coming to the final. Australia batted first. Ricky Ponting scored 140 runs in 121 balls and Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist made 50 runs as Australia posted a mammoth score of 359-2. Such a big score that even without India batting, everyone assumed that the World Cup was out of India’s hands. Seeing the target of 360 runs in Johannesburg then believe me, even Team India had lost its morale without the match.
The team was ready to accept defeat. In such a situation, Tendulkar gave another memorable speech in ‘Chak De India’ style and it is remembered till today. Today everyone knows that India lost the final and Australia won the World Cup, but what Tendulkar said then and the strategy he made to achieve this big goal was unique. Then inside the dressing room, Tendulkar had instilled the spirit of competition in every player.
Tendulkar told his teammates- ‘Can we think of hitting one four in every over? If we do this, it will mean scoring 200 runs in 50 balls and 160 runs will be required in the remaining 250 balls, which does not seem so difficult. This was an amazing idea and everyone in the dressing room promised to play with this strategy.
Luck was not on his side and Tendulkar himself was out in the very first over (Glenn McGrath dismissed Tendulkar on the 5th ball). As soon as he was out, Team India’s enthusiasm evaporated and the team fell far short of its target. Virender Sehwag’s courageous inning of 82 runs went in vain as India collapsed for 234 runs in just 39.4 overs. Still, it is certain that the players had not forgotten Tendulkar’s message and this is visible in the run rate.
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