On that day when the sandstorm blew in to stop play - it was God announcing he had taken his seat - @sachin_rt told coach Gaekwad in the dressing room: "Don't worry I'll be there in the end."

India qualified for the final, but he paces the dressing room hissing, "I was not out."

India Today - Rohit Brijnath / Peter Roebuck

This is the first thing about genius. Self-belief. Inside the stomach of some men smoulders a defiance that is abnormal, a will so powerful that no ordinary barometer can register it. We dream, Tendulkar does.

1/4

#DesertStorm

This is the second thing about genius. Desire. They could have turned off the lights in Sharjah, Tendulkar's shots would have illuminated the city, such is the sunlight of his batting. India has qualified for the final, but he paces the dressing room hissing, "I was not out

2/4

He was not there to help India qualify, he was there to win the match. We dream small, Tendulkar lives bigger. Says Allan Border, Australian coach, a day later: "Hell, if he stayed, even at 11 an over he would have got it." This is the third thing about genius. Fear.

3/4

"We bowled short, on the off stump, nothing worked." Kasprowicz is sort of speechless. In first match, gets hit for 2 successive fours. This match it's 2 successive sixes. Now he swears, "Shit, I'm sick of this."

This is the final thing about genius & that innings. Respect.

4/4

Some insights from dressing rooms after @sachin_rt's epic 143.

Conversation goes something like this:Border: It's scary, where the hell do we bowl to him. Ian Chappell: Yeah mate, but that's with all great players. Border: Well yes, but imagine what he'll be like when he's 28.

Mark Waugh says, "Sachin's better; Lara is more risky outside the off stump." Shane Warne adds, "Nothing affects Sachin, Brian lets things bother him."

Steve Waugh then takes the debate to a higher plane with one statement, a grand canyon of a compliment actually: "In history Sachin will go down as second to Bradman." What he's saying is this: Tendulkar owns the present, and perhaps one day will surpass the past as well.

Listen to Warne: "You have to de-cide for yourself whether you're bowling well or not. He's going to hit you for fours and sixes anyway."

Kasprowicz has a superior story. During the Bangalore Test, frustrated, he went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses?" Lillee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."

Shastri: "I have never seen such arrogance, such contempt for bowlers since Richards."

Tendulkar was running singles like a demon - four 3s, fifteen 2s, thirty-five 1s - yet hitting sixes (5 of them) in between. "Running tires you, yet he was never out of position for a shot."

The heavy bat helps. Still, says Warne, he has enormous power. "It's a bit discouraging. In India he ran down the pitch and hit me off the toe of the bat. It should have gone to mid-on but it went for a six."

Of that night some final stories remain. Chappell saying, "What would I want of his batting? Everything."

And then finally, Ajay Jadeja, echoing us all: "I can't dream of an innings like that. He exists where we can't."

The innings was just a reminder, a page from a book, that this batsman who was conceived under God's full attention. Imagine, what greater deeds remain, the other pages of that book are yet to be turned.

So what motivates Tendulkar, he says, "It's the challenge that drives me."

#End of the Thread.