“Dinda came and started glaring at Sachin..” Deep Dasgupta recalls an incident from Ranji Trophy final in 2007

Indian commentator Deep DasGupta while doing commentary recently on the third ODI between India and the West Indies revealed a shocking incident. Former cricketer Deep Dasgupta recounted the story of an Indian bowler Ashoke Dinda.  Dinda made the mistake of sledging Tendulkar and the Bengal team paid a heavy price for it. 

The most glorious run-scorer of all time, Sachin Tendulkar was the most complete batter. Tendulkar holds the record for the most runs scored in both ODIs and Tests. It was a delight to watch him play. He was a master at stroking the ball to perfection.

In the 2006/07 Ranji Trophy final, Bengal and Mumbai were playing against each other. Mumbai XI included stars like Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, and a young Rohit Sharma. Dasgupta described.

“It was the Ranji Trophy final between Bengal and Mumbai. I was the captain of Bengal, we had won the toss and opted to bowl. It was a wet wicket and they had lost a few quick wickets. It was a proper Mumbai side, with Zaheer, Ajit, Rohit.. you name it,”

HE BEGAN.

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The God didn’t say a word but his bat did talk a lot that day

Deepdas recalled that Dinda had a habit of glaring at the batters every time he beat them. Dasgupta had categorically asked the seamer to not do that against Sachin.

“They lost two wickets early and Sachin came out to bat. It was the first season of Ashoke Dinda, he was young and fast. I had already told him, ‘With Sachin, you just come and bowl’. Dinda had this habit at that time that whenever he would beat the batter, he would just take 2-3 extra steps in his follow throw and glare at him. So, I categorically told him, ‘Don’t say anything to Sachin’.”

As it would turn out, Dinda did glare at Sachin after beating him on one occasion, and the ‘Master Blaster’ responded to the gaze not with words but rather with his bat as he did throughout his career.

“Then, on one ball, he bowls a little short, it bounces off the wicket and hits Sachin on the elbow. He shook his hand, it was clear that he was hurt. And then, Dinda comes and starts glaring at him. I was like, “What are you doing man!”. I came running towards him, put my hand on his shoulder, and said, ‘go back, go back’. And then, Sachin got an 80 or a 100 (105). So, you got to be careful about what you speak to whom. Because players like him can punish you,”

DASGUPTA FINISHED.

Bengal eventually lost the match by a massive margin of 132 runs.