Named after Tendulkar, this Sachin is also a master blaster

His police officer mother didn't want cricket to be Sachin Dhas' focus in life but the father knew that he was destined to make it big on the 22-yard strip despite spending a better part of his life training on 11-yard grass tracks that pass for infrastructure in his hometown Beed.

The 19-year-old Dhas is among the brightest prospects to emerge in the Indian team that is competing in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. He has displayed superb game sense as the team's designated finisher with 294 runs at an above 100 strike rate.

On Tuesday, his 96-run knock, along with skipper Uday Saharan's 81, was a key factor in ensuring that India sneaked into the age-group showpiece's final for a fifth consecutive time.

"You only have half pitches over here (in Beed). Sachin came here with his father when he was four and a half years old and even before going to South Africa, he trained on half turfs," said an ecstatic Sheikh Azhar, the area's most famous coach who shaped Dhas' early years.

For a country which produces phenomenal cricketing talent often not because of, but despite the system, Sachin's emergence as the next big thing from junior India stable shouldn't come as a surprise.

Named after the iconic Mumbaikar, who is synonymous with Indian cricket, Sachin is a fan of Virat Kohli, the modern great he has perhaps seen more closely although he wears the number 10 jersey which was owned by Tendulkar in every sense of the word. "I named him after Sachin Tendulkar when he was born in 2005 because I was a huge fan but he also likes Virat Kohli a lot," declared his beaming father Sanjay when PTI reached out to him to understand how Sachin was shaped into the promising talent he is now. "Sachin ka koi dost nahihai. Main hi uska dost hun. Koi shaadi, koi janamdinkahingayanahi. Cricket se focus hate, aisakuchkarnemainediya hi nahi (He has no friends. I am his only friend. I have never allowed him to attend marriages, birthday parties so that his focus never wavers)," he said.

"Uski mummy police mein hain toh discipline hai (His mom is in police and there is discipline in him)," added the proud father, whose phone hasn't stopped ringing thanks to his son's achievements at the mega-event. Sachin bats at No. 6, where either one is expected to go for big shots during slog overs or be the saviour after a top-order collapse like it happened in the semifinal when he arrived at the crease with the score-sheet reading 31/4. What followed was a batting master-class

under pressure.