Tendulkar is a rare genius: Chappell

Some bowlers intimidate batsmen but itis rare genius who intimidates bowlers as Sachin Tendulkar did in thehigh-voltage match against Pakistan when his competitive juices were flowing. Itwas heady stuff!And India will now take much more than just thepoints from their impressive six-wicket win against their traditional rivalsthrough to the business end of this World Cup.India booked itspassage through to the Super Six stage and the win on Saturday continued therevival of the team since the demoralising defeat by the Australians at thestart of the tournament.In this form Ganguly and his team arecapable of beating anyone but they must believe in themselves and be prepared toplay with the freedom they have shown in recent matches.Pakistanhave yet to win a World Cup match against India and if they are to do so theyneed to develop some subtlety to go with the sledge-hammer approach. Fullfrontal assault has not done the trick for them so far.Thankfully itwas a day game because Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat on an excellentbatting wicket. Nehra for one found conditions very different from thoseexperienced at Kingsmead the other evening.Saeed Anwar continuedwith his love affair with the Indian bowling in one-day cricket with an inningsthat started tentatively but grew into the more assured and elegant version ofAnwar that we have come to know and appreciate. When he was finallybowled in the 41st over by a near perfect Nehra yorker, Anwar had anchored thePakistan innings and had set the solid foundation for their total of 273 forseven.Rashid Latif did a fine job in the last ten overs to ensure acompetitive total while Wasim Akram played some lusty shots at the end tocomplete a frustrating day for Nehra. The total of 273 would havebeen excellent had it been a night game but as conditions were not going tochange in the afternoon Pakistan will have felt uneasy about the Indian toporder, especially Tendulkar. The other thing that has to be noted isthat grounds here in South Africa are generally on the small side and Centurionis one of the smaller grounds of the World Cup rotation. A score of 270 in 50overs here would only be seen as par.For me, the prospect of thePakistan pace attack challenging the immense skills of Tendulkar and his lookalike Virender Sehwag was an exciting proposition. Early wicketswere always going to be important for Pakistan to make the score resemble 300,so Waqar Younis decided to go with his big guns Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram.For India to win it would probably take someone to make 100 so Tendulkar wouldhave loomed large in the sights of the Pakistani pace trio.The scenewas set for a classic confrontation and whoever won the first round was going totake a huge step toward winning the game and getting through to the next stagein good shape. The loser may well be consigned to an early exit.Theshowdown got away to an explosive start. Neither Akram nor Shoaib had a chanceto settle in before Tendulkar struck the first psychological blows bydespatching both bowlers to various parts of the ground.Tendulkarheaved a big six over third man in Shoaib''s first over and the young fast bowlerlooked unnerved. Everybody''s pace had quickened and the adrenalin was racing.Wasim brought some sanity to the proceedings in his second over while Waqarreplaced Shoaib after just one over. Sehwag proceeded to unsettle him by hittinghis first delivery for an even bigger six over third man.The paceand bounce was suiting the aggression of the two Indian openers. Fire was beingused to fight fire. The question was; which side was going to breakfirst?Ten runs per over was just the start India wanted and Pakistanwere psychologically on the back foot.Wasim Akram has been as goodwith his craft as Tendulkar is with his and the old warhorse turned back theclock as he steamed in to deliver some fine deliveries. But conditions were infavour of the batting side and luck seemed to be running their way.Good players though make their own luck, and Tendulkar pierced thefield on both sides of the wicket with precision drives, pulls and cuts.Waqar responded to being hit behind square on the leg side frommiddle stump to bowling more to the off side only to see balls race through thecovers. Errors of length were hurting the Pakistan pace bowlers as they strivedfor even more pace.Each time they erred, Tendulkar punished them.Sehwag finally fell to some clever bowling and good field placing ashe chipped Waqar to extra cover. He may have also been sucked into the maelstromof adrenalin sparked by Tendulkar''s brilliance.Ganguly strode to thecrease. He needed to settle things with a cool head and feed the strike to therampant Tendulkar. Ganguly didn''t even have time to think about it as RudiCoetzer adjudged him LBW to the first ball he faced. The bowlingskipper had won the battle of the captains and had reclaimed some ground for thebeleaguered Pakistan bowlers. The entertainment level was exceedinglyhigh.Abdur Razzaq became the villain of the piece for Pakistan as hemisjudged a catch from Tendulkar coming from a crude drive off the bowling ofWasim when Tendulkar was on 32. I bet I wasn''t the only one whoimmediately thought of Herschelle Gibbs'' muffed chance from Steve Waugh in thesemi-final of the 1999 World Cup. Was this going to prove as costly a miss forPakistan?Kaif was promoted ahead of Mongia in the Indian battingorder and he set about doing what his captain would have wanted done. He did notget too many opportunities himself, but he got to be a close spectator in theongoing Tendulkar master-class.Pakistan proceeded to shootthemselves in the foot as they bowled no bowls as the tide of the contest beganto flow India''s way. Their pace was working againstPakistan.Tendulkar eased back the throttle as Kaif joined in themerriment with some classy shots of his own. The body language suggestedPakistan was running out of ideas as well as belief. They had thrown their bestpunches but they were reeling from the body blows India had got inearly.Shoaib soon lost the plot. Pace was certainly not working forhim and he seemed devoid of a back-up plan. He began flailing like a drowningman in a raging torrent. Meanwhile, Kaif had dragged himself out ofhis ringside seat to join in the command performance. He played with a style andaplomb which suggests he is also a player of rare skill. We should see more ofhim in the future.At the first drinks break India was travelling atnearly nine runs per over and only a disaster would stop them from taking thehonours.Afridi and Razzaq were the first attempts at subtlety andwhile they succeeded in slowing the march to victory it was as much a decisionby Tendulkar that the killer punch had been landed and India only needed toremain standing to win the bout.Once Tendulkar and Kaif departed itwas left to Dravid and Yuvraj Singh to see India home in what had been anotherin the Titanic contests between these two proud nations.