Just finished watching the Indian innings of the one dayer against the West Indies.

What has happened to India? Not so long ago, they were getting crushed by pretty much anyone and suddenly they have regained their mojo. The batting seems to be clinical in its execution and moving Sachin down the order certainly has opened up a lot of possibilities.

I may be speaking ‘fan language’ but whenever Sachin is at the crease, it feels like something is going to happen. And when he was 20-odd in 30-odd with Dravid being the faster scorer (who would have thought that would be the case!), I was feeling quite bored.

And then, out of nowhere, Sachin opened up. Three 4’s in one over from the lefty - pardon me for not knowing too many West Indian players - and it just seemed like the floodgates had opened.

Did they open! First Dravid, then Dhoni and of course Sachin started hitting 4’s and 6’s like it was nobody’s business. Truly, Dhoni’s straight sixes were just unbelievable.

It was fitting at the end that Sachin was able to take two off the second-last ball of the innings, which enabled him to get to 99 and take one off the last ball to get his hundred. It seems like it has been a while since he got to that milestone, and when news came out that he was going to be pushed to the middle order, I had given up hope of him getting close to three figures. But he proved that he is capable of scoring heavily no matter where, and it felt great to see him get to his century.

Congratulations, Sachin. Now let’s see how you can spin the ball!

Cross posted at Desicritics.org