Mumbai: Retired batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday heaped praise on the superb batting exhibition put up by South Africa, especially their captain AB De Villiers in the deciding fifth and final One Day International against India last Sunday.
“I felt that South Africa batted really well. I wouldn’t want to take away the credit away from Quinton de Kock, du Plessis and de Villiers. I thought de Villiers batted really well,” said Tendulkar at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s BKC ground after his first net session in a long time.
“If you see the first 20 balls he faced and at no stage, I still remember I was watching a little bit and Shaun Pollock kept saying he has not shifted to sixth and seventh gear. It was rightly so, he has figured out how to pace his innings and he did it beautifully. I would give credit to the way he batted.”
Asked whether de Villiers is ahead of his time, Tendulkar said, “Yes, he is. Absolutely. Maybe he is possibly at the peak of his career. He is really, really batting unbelievably well and it seems that he has got more time than anyone else.”
However, true to his public demeanour he steered clear of any controversies over the preparation of the track at the Wankhede Stadium for the finale of the series that SA won by a whopping 214 runs after raking up a record-high (by all opposition against India) score of 438 for 4.
“I don’t know what [Indian team director] Ravi [Shastri] said to the curator [Sudhir Naik],” replied the batting great and the only compiler of a staggering 100 international hundreds in the game’s history when asked about the pitch and the raging controversy.
Shastri had reportedly used inappropriate language to Naik in an angry exchange of words about the flat nature of the track prepared for the crunch game midway through the match, according to a complaint filed to Mumbai Cricket Association by the curator, himself a former Test opener.
Tendulkar laid out a red-carpet welcome to his former opening partner Virender Sehwag, who has joined him for the upcoming Cricket All Stars T20 — a league promoted by the Indian legend and Australia’s spin bowling wizard Shane Warne.
“Warm welcome to my friend & a batsman with his distinct style! @virendersehwag joins us at @T20AllStars,” Tendulkar tweeted.
The Warne-Tendular league, which will feature retired international cricketers, is all set to get under way in the United States early next month.
