Junior Digest

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar  said that singing the national anthem in front of a packed Wankhede Stadium before the 2011 World Cup final is the “proudest feeling” he has ever had in his life.

“But it (singing of national anthem) goes to a different level altogether, when you are playing against Pakistan in 2003 World Cup (in Centurion), standing inside the stadium, in the middle of the group, with 60,000 people singing ‘Jana Gana Mana’,” the right-handed former India batsman said here.

He was speaking at the unveiling of an album ‘The Sport Heroes’, aimed to inspire the younger generation towards sports.

“When you sing the ‘Jana Gana Mana’, your head is always held high, but when you sing it (standing) in the centre of the ground, then…Seena chauda ho jata hai (chest swells with pride),” Tendulkar said.

“A couple of experiences, one was that (against Pakistan). The other one was when we played the 2011 World Cup finals, I can never forget that experience, the entire stadium singing ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and it still reverberates in my ears. It’s the proudest feeling I have ever had in my life,” the master blaster said.

“We achieve so many personal goals, also team milestones are achieved, but when its comes to our national anthem, everything else takes a backseat,” he feels.

Tendulkar was part of the World Cup (50 overs) winning team where India defeated Sri Lanka in the finals at the Wankhede stadium here in 2011, to lift the trophy after 28 long years.

The video “The Sport Heroes”, directed by Abhijit Panse, features the national anthem sung by eight well-known sports personalities – Sachin, Sunil Gavaskar, tennis players Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupati, hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay, football star Baichung Bhutia, Olympic medal winner and shooter Gagan Narang and wrestler Sushil Kumar.

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Pranav Dhanawade, who has broken a century-old cricketing record on Monday, became the first batsman to score 1000-plus runs in an innings in any form of cricket. Batting against Arya Gurukul School in a Bhandari Cup match, Pranav reached 1000 runs in just 323 balls on Tuesday. The tournament is an under-16 inter-school event organized by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) mainly for the benefit of suburban schools.

Pranav’s epic knock, which lasted 395 minutes, included a staggering 59 sixes and 129 fours. His team soon declared the innings at 1465/3, which is also a world record, with Pranav remaining at unbeaten 1009. His school went past Victoria’s 1107 against New South Wales made way back in 1926.

The 15-year-old student of KC Gandhi High School, Kalyan has broken a 116-old cricketing record after amassing unbeaten 652 on Monday thus taking over the mantle of ‘highest individual score’ (including minor cricket) from AEJ Collins. Collins had held the record since 1899 when he struck an unbeaten 628 for Clark House against North Town House in UK.

In the course of his multiple record-breaking feat, Pranav also surpassed Prithvi Shaw’s marathon 546 scored two years ago in a Harris Shield tie, an innings that had previously been the highest individual score in any form of cricket in India.

PERTH : Steve Smith and George Bailey both scored centuries as Australia cruised to a five wicket win over India in the first one day international at the WACA ground on Tuesday.

After Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 171 to lead his country to an imposing 309-3, Australia got away to a rocky start when left arm seamer Barinder Sran removed both openers in his first three overs.

Playing on a lifeless pitch which offered nothing for the bowlers, Bailey and Smith played brilliantly to frustrate the Indian attack.

They rotated the strike throughout the innings to keep the score moving, taking quick singles and hitting boundaries when they needed to increase the pace.

Bailey was the more aggressive early and reached his century before his captain, taking just 106 balls with six boundaries and two sixes.

Smith began to accelerate and followed Bailey to three figures soon after, off only 97 balls including six fours and a towering six.

Bailey eventually fell when he tried to smash another six off Ravi Ashwin and was caught on the boundary by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Smith continued his incredible vein of form.

He smashed his way to 149 but with only two runs needed for victory he chipped Sran to cover where Virat Kohli claimed an easy catch, leaving James Faulkner to hit the winning run.

India must have been confident of defending their total after Sran’s impressive start.

He brilliantly caught and bowled Finch (8) in his second over, then had the dangerous Warner (5) caught at midwicket by Kohli in his third.

But the ease with which Australia chased the score down showed that India had not scored quickly enough in the middle of their innings and were at least 20 runs short of a competitive total.

Earlier Sharma and Kohli (91) shared a 207-run partnership for the second wicket against a toothless Australian attack.India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan (9) in the sixth over when he top-edged an attempted pull from Josh Hazlewood straight to Mitchell Marsh at deep backward square leg.

However, that brought Kohli to the crease and signalled a long period of complete dominance over the Australian attack as he raced to the highest individual ODI score against Australia on Australian soil, eclipsing Viv Richards’ 153 not out for the West Indies in 1979.

Sharma smashed 13 fours and cleared the boundary seven times to the delight of the large contingent of Indian fans at the ground.

He built his innings steadily, bringing up his 50 from 63 balls, his century from 122 and his 150 from 155, mixing quick singles with some powerful boundary hitting.

It was the fourth time Sharma had scored 150 in ODIs, a record only surpassed by countryman Sachin Tendulkar.

Sharma lost Kohli with the score on 243 and was joined at the crease by Dhoni, who joined in with 18 rapid runs before he was caught brilliantly at mid-on by Boland.

However, despite the late flourish the Indians fell short and Australia were able to draw first blood in the five-match series.

AFP, Perth