Sharjah in April 1998 was hot even by its own standards, and on the evening of 22 April the heat became a storm. Midway through India's chase against Australia in the Coca-Cola Cup, a wall of sand blew across the ground. Players crouched, floodlights disappeared, and for twenty-five minutes nobody could see the pitch. When the game restarted the target had been revised, and what followed became the innings that made the rest of the world understand what India already knew about Sachin Tendulkar.
The sums
Australia had made 284 for 7, with Michael Bevan unbeaten on 101. The storm cost India four overs: the target for victory became 276 from 46 overs, and the target to qualify for the final ahead of New Zealand became 237. India did not win the match. They lost it by 26 runs. But Tendulkar, who had opened and watched wickets fall at the other end, took the chase and the qualification into his own hands.
He made 143 from 131 balls, with nine fours and five sixes. Shane Warne, the best spinner in the world, was hit back over his head. Michael Kasprowicz was lifted over long-on and then, with the next ball of the same thought, cut past point. Tony Greig, commentating, lost his composure entirely and was heard by millions. India passed 237, qualified, and Tendulkar was out in the 43rd over with the crowd standing.
The birthday
The final was two days later, 24 April, Tendulkar's 25th birthday. Australia batted first again and made 272 for 9. Steve Waugh, their captain, said afterwards that his bowlers had talked about nothing else for two days. It did not help. Tendulkar made 134 from 131 balls, and this time India won, by six wickets with nine balls to spare. Warne was taken for a six over midwicket that landed in the stand, and the delivery after it went the same way through the covers along the ground.
Warne later said, in a line that has been quoted ever since, that he went to bed dreaming of Sachin hitting him for sixes. In the space of three days Tendulkar had made 277 runs against the strongest bowling attack in one-day cricket, in a desert, in the dark, on the biggest stage the game offered outside a World Cup.
The ground
Sharjah's stadium had been built in the 1980s by Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, a businessman who had learned to love cricket as a schoolboy, and for twenty years it was where the best one-day sides came to play in front of expatriate crowds. The floodlit evenings there were as much a part of the decade as the cassettes of film music sold outside the gates. Desert Storm was its finest hour, and the ground's name is still said with those two innings in mind.
Why it matters
Tendulkar had been the best batter in India since he was sixteen. Sharjah 1998 was the moment the title went from Indian to global. Within a year he was being compared with Bradman by Bradman himself, who said that Tendulkar reminded him of the way he had batted. For a generation of fans, the memory is specific: a sandstorm, a revised target, Tony Greig shouting, and a small man in blue hitting the ball a very long way.
