Salute Sachin at peak: Master at the nets

WANKHEDE STADIUM: After a felicitation by the ground staff and local bowlers, it was business as usual for Sachin who did not betray that this would be his last ever practice session before a Test match. 
First, with the boys who will hold the team together after his departure, he played a quick game of football to loosen up. He then padded up to knock down balls at the nets in an elongated session facing Ishant Sharma and then resting with skipper MS Dhoni.

Just then in walked BCCI president Srinivasan along with officials on either side. He walked up to the middle and gave a warm (farewell) hugged to the little master.
Next, Sachin got deep into a discussion with MSD under an umbrella so get the better of the bright sun shining down with a lot of heat. And then it was again time to pad up, this time to face spin bowling by a local lad. That was barely for 10 minutes and then he walked to the other side of the ground where the media was waiting for that one last, rare group picture with him.
He smiled, signed an autograph or two, took off his cap on request and obliged first the print media with a picture and then the photographers. He remembered all the names of those sports journalists who had attended his debut match in Pakistan in 1989. “How can you forget Sahi,” he told a veteran who had forgotten to list a Kolkata-based veteran journalist of many matches.
All laughed and a click later, lots of mobbing later, some Lata Mangeshkar CDs as a gift from the media and some smiles later he walked away into the dressing room from where he will emerge for his last salute to the game he punctuated with a rare mix of genius, humility and high performance.  
Source: The Pioneer, Novermber 14, 2013

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