In Mumbai’s cricketing circles, being khadoos is a highly respected trait. The Hindi word literally means stubborn in an Ebenezer Scrooge sort of a way. In a cricketing sense, it means not giving your opponent an inch; being single-mindedly focused on winning, becoming bruised, battered and bloodied in the bargain, but holding on to that inch, and if you still must perish, do so with your pride intact.

Tendulkar’s 146 in Cape Town typifies what Mumbai’s cricketing mandarins have been talking about all this while. Those who saw him face Dale Steyn’s first over on Day 2 would swear he had no idea what the ball doing. Having dominated the best part of 21 years of international cricket, Tendulkar was made to look like a novice by Steyn.

But he hung on. The series hinges on this hundred. He knew it. Despite the repeated humiliation of not being able to get bat to ball, despite the non-stop chatter from the bowlers and close-in fielders, he focussed on the next ball. India were not about to