A couple of wafts, and a couple more mistimed shots, it looked like it was going to be another one of those frustrating days for Sachin Tendulkar.
However, a disdainful slap down the ground, and the Little Master seemed to find his mojo back, with the capacity crowd, watching the Mumbai Indians chase down 154 against Trinidad & Tobago in the Champions League T20 semifinals, cheering every single run that poured out of the bat of Tendulkar.
The Big Little Man has floundered quite a bit in this tournament, his last T20 competition, but cometh the man, cometh the hour they say and in the big game, that big bat of his did do some, not all, of the talking for the Mumbai Indians.
Tendulkar reached the landmark 50,000 runs in all recognised cricket in the first ball of the eighth over, pushing a single to the leg side calmly as the crowd, definitely more nervous and excited over the record, erupted in glee.
A small acknowledgement of the cheers was made with the raise of the bat and the now customary look up the heavens in ode to his late father as Tendulkar became the 16th batsman to reach the landmark, and the first Indian, in fact the first from the subcontinent.
There were a few brilliant strokes included in the 30-ball 35 (2x4, 2x6), with a huge six over long-on probably the pick of the bunch.
A waft outside the off-stump while looking to take the game to the brink, saw the big little man, get an outside edge off Lendl Simmons; but the crowd will take with them 35 of those 50,000-odd runs at the end of the night, and say they were there when Sachin reached another one of those countless landmarks.
