Tendulkar dismisses brouhaha over form

Sachin Tendulkar has a message for those who have made a big hue and cry about his failure in the first Test at Lord's - "don't over-react".

His captain Sourav Ganguly too wants "people to go a little easy" on the master batsman.

Tendulkar hit a stupendous 169 against Worcestershire on Friday including over hundred runs in the final session and then made his point in a humble manner.

"I think people are just over-reacting, I know what I am doing," said Tendulkar as he made his way to the team's bus wading his way through hundreds of spectators seeking his autograph.

Tendulkar failed in both the innings of the Lord's Test, scoring 16 and 13 runs, as India crashed to a 170-run defeat against England to be one-down in the four-Test series.

"I am worried about what I need to do rather than worry about what people write about me," said the maestro "I just want to go out and play my game."

Tendulkar said he understood the expectations were high where his performance was concerned but added "expectations are high because people write these things... People just worry."

Tendulkar mentioned his performance in recent matches, both in Tests and one-day internationals, to drive home his point. "In the last five or six Tests, I have scored over 400 runs. Even in the one-day championships, I have scored 350 runs so I am not bothered."

Tendulkar had a moderate series by his standards in the West Indies recently and even suffered the embarrassment of three ducks, including two in succession. He still scored 331 runs in five Tests at an average of 41.38 with one century and two fifties. He also played a winning role in the final one-day game, smashing 65 runs.

In the NatWest triangular series in England, Tendulkar played several quality innings and made 337 runs at 56.16 with two centuries but failed to make a mark in the final.

Tendulkar, having made his point, then talked about his innings yesterday which had a sizeable crowd in raptures and drew wide praise from bowler Alamgir Sheriyar whose left-arm pace was genuinely sharp and also moved considerably.

"I wanted to spend some time in the middle. I think it is always important for a batsman to spend some time in the middle."

Tendulkar said the wicket helped seam bowling but his intention from the start was to hang around rather than worry too much about the runs he would score. "It was seaming around a bit but I wasn't worried about how many runs I would score.

"My intention was to spend more time in the middle and I am pretty happy I was able to achieve it," he said.

Tendulkar praised Sheriyar who took four wickets and showed a great heart in bowling long spells. "He bowled pretty sharp and he swung the ball as well."

Sheriyar himself was quite charmed by Tendulkar's knock even though he took quite a bit of stick from the little master's big blade, being hit for no less than nine fours in the final session.

"Some of the shots he played after tea were just unbelievable," Sheriyar said. "At times, you could do little but just laugh at it."

Ganguly too had words of praise for Tendulkar and said "it is time people go a little easy on the man".

"Tendulkar is Tendulkar," said Ganguly. "He is only human and is expected to have an odd failure or two.

"But just look at the runs he has made in his career. His track record speaks for itself," the skipper said.

Ganguly was also all praise for Tendulkar's knock against Worcestershire. "He was simply superb. His strokeplay after tea was breathtaking. It was majestic."

When Tendulkar's attention was drawn to his comments in support of the intruder who ran on to the pitch during the Lord's Test after he was dismissed in the second innings, sparking security speculations, he said, "I didn't want his name to be put on record," revealing his essentially humane nature on an issue which still is causing editorials and comments in newspapers to be written in England.