Mohali, first Test, day 2
Tuesday, December 4, 2001

At 3.24 in the afternoon, Mohali stopped for someone who is five foot four but 100 feet tall.

While Deep Dasgupta was batting, the shouts from the stands had been Murdabad (death to you). By the time he had reached the shadows of the pavilion after his maiden century in only his third Test, he had been forgotten. People were scrambling over each other to hang over the edge of the stand above the players' dressing room - but not to congratulate or commiserate. To celebrate someone else, someone bigger than any English cricketer can imagine. Someone who since he was 16 and in the Test side, or 14 and playing Ranji Trophy, maybe even since he was ten and playing schoolboy cricket, has been more than a sportsman.

Twenty thousand people shouted one name - nothing on 100,000 at Eden Gardens or the madness that erupts in Bombay, but something none of these English players had ever experienced. Only two - Graham Thorpe and Nasser Hussain - have played against India before in a Test and that was at home.

He passed Dasgupta without a nod, or a pat of congratulation, just a forthright march to the middle. As he walked, he practised - one immaculate forward defensive, staccato as if he'd hit an invisible wall, one twist to the right, one to the left, sleeves buttoned up. England's players stood at the wicketkeeper's end and watched as he walked - coming towards them like a midnight express.

Craig White is not someone who is overawed by reputation. At The Oval last year, he bowled Brian Lara for 0. But there was no dream feather in the cap this time as he ran in to Tendulkar. His first ball elicited an immaculate forward-defensive. And his second. He even got one past the outside the edge. in what may turn out to be the best moment of White's tour. Only after 16 balls did he produce a tiptoed drive backward of square by the heaviest bat in the world today, gripped low with the hands of a man wringing a dishcloth.

When he leaves a ball, he holds his bat high straight above his head and becomes a periscope. When he hits it, he sticks his bottom out slightly and the ball does the running. He passed a thousand runs against England as the low afternoon sun lit his bat, turning his cheek to honey and his bat to gold.

It is easy to rhapsodise, but when the floodlights went on the electricity was already there.

At the end White shook his hand, as if wanting to touch him. The yellow letters on the royal-blue scoreboard read Batsman Tendulkar 31. There should be a good crowd tomorrow.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole of England's Indian tour for Wisden.com.

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