West Indies swept as Tendulkar retires

MUMBAI, India — A workmanlike half-century from Denesh Ramdin failed to inspire West Indies, and India gifted Sachin Tendulkar an innings and 126-run victory in the second Test on Saturday here to mark his retirement from the international game.

Ramdin hit the top score of 53, as the Windies were bowled out for 187 in their second innings on the third day before a Wankhede Stadium packed with fans of Tendulkar that came to wish him farewell.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul gathered 41, sharing a half-century stand with Ramdin, and Chris Gayle made 35, but no other batsman reached 20, as left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha ended with 5-49 from 18 overs for match figures of 10-89 that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin finished with 4-89 from 17 overs.

To a tumultuous roar, the result was formalised about 15 minutes past the scheduled lunch interval, when Shannon Gabriel had his middle stump spectacularly flattened by an in-swinging delivery from Mohammad Shami, the Indian bowling find of the series.

The victory meant West Indies were swept in the hastily-arranged, two-match series, following an innings and 51-run defeat in the first Test which ended two Fridays ago at Eden Gardens in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, and brought fitting end to the international career of the batting legend, whose exploits have inspired a nation and transformed the fortunes of the national team.

Tendulkar, whose debut was against Pakistan 24 years ago in Karachi, became the first man to play 200 Tests in this match.

He finished with an incredible 15,921 runs, the highest aggregate in the history of the longest format of the game, at an average of 53.78 and struck an unrivalled 51 hundreds, the highest number ever.

ESPN-Cricinfo, the website that has become the source of all knowledge on the game, hailed him as “perhaps, the most complete batsman and the most worshipped cricketer in the World, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and One-day Internationals, and most international runs”.

He also scored an amazing 18,426 runs in 463 ODIs at an average of 44.83, including 49 hundreds, which made him the first player to score 100 international hundreds.

Tendulkar paid tribute to his family, friends and close associates that have helped to shape him into the person and the player that he became during a moving 30-minute farewell speech that was punctuated a few times by the crowd roaring his name, “Sachiiinnn, Sachin!”, which has accompanied him for most of the 24 years that he has lived in the public eye.

Following this, members of the Indian team took turns in hoisting him to their shoulders and taking him on a lap of honour of the ground in scenes similar to two years ago, when he had helped urge them to their second ODI World Cup victory on home soil.

Members of the West Indies team also took advantage of their good fortune to be India’s opponents for such an auspicious occasion to either have their photo taken with Tendulkar or have him autograph playing jerseys, other items of clothing, miniature bats, a keepsake that was published or a special commemorative plaque that had been presented to them this week.

West Indies batting legend Brian Lara, with whom Tendulkar has been compared for most of his career and has been the subject of many “rum-shop” discussions across the Caribbean, also presented the Indian icon with a miniature steel-pan on behalf of the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago in a private ceremony witnessed by members of the Windies team.

A few hours earlier, Ramdin struck eight fours and one six from 68 balls in just over 1½ hours, as West Indies crumbled after they resumed from their overnight total of 43 for three.

A rush of blood resulting in a charge down the pitch resulted in Marlon Samuels being stumped off left-arm spinner Ojha for 11 in the fifth over of the day started the decline.

Opener Chris Gayle, a favourite in India due to his exploits in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, exercised great restraint before he was caught behind four overs later from a top-edged cut off Ojha, who held a return catch to dismiss fellow left-hander Narsingh Deonarine two overs later, leaving West Indies 89 for six.

Ramdin came to the crease and spent close to an hour defying the Indian attack along with Chanderpaul to put on 68 for the seventh wicket.

But Chanderpaul was lbw, playing back to Ashwin, and there was token resistance from West Indies captain Darren Sammy, Shane Shillingford and Shannon Gabriel, as Ramdin reached his 50 from 60 balls with a drive off Ashwin through widish mid-off.

Rohit Sharma was named Man-of-the-Series, after scoring back-to-back hundreds in his first two Tests for India.

The two sides now play three One-day Internationals, beginning on Friday at the Nehru Stadium in the south-western city of Kochi.

SCOREBOARD

WEST INDIES 1st Innings 182
(K. Powell 48; P. Ojha 5-40)

INDIA 1st Innings 495
(C. Pujara 113, R. Sharma 111 not out; S. Shillingford 5-179)

WEST INDIES 2nd Innings

C. Gayle c wkpr Dhoni b Ojha 35
K. Powell c Mohammed Shami b Ashwin 9
T. Best lbw b Ojha 9
D.M. Bravo lbw b Ashwin 11
M. Samuels st Dhoni b Ojha 11
S. Chanderpaul lbw b Ashwin 41
N. Deonarine c and b Ojha 0
+D. Ramdin not out 53
*D. Sammy lbw b Ojha 1
S. Shillingford lbw b Ashwin 8
S. Gabriel b Mohammed Shami 0
Extras (b4, lb5) 9
TOTAL (all out) 187

Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Powell), 2-28 (Best), 3-43 (Bravo), 4-74 (Samuels), 5-87 (Gayle), 6-89 (Deonarine), 7-157 (Chanderpaul), 8-162 (Sammy), 9-185 (Shillingford)

Bowling: Kumar 3-0-4-0; Mohammed Shami 7-0-28-1; Ashwin 17-4-89-4; Ojha 18-6-49-5; Tendulkar 2-0-4-0

Overs: 47

Result: India won by an innings and 126 runs
Series: India win two-match series 2-0

Man-of-the-Match: P. Ojha (India)
Man-of-the-Series: R. Sharma (India)

Umpires: R. Kettleborough (England), N. Llong (England)
TV umpire: V. Kulkarni (India)
Match referee: A. Pycroft (Zimbabwe)
Reserve umpire: P. Pathak (India)

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