45 reasons why we love Sachin: part two
HE MADE THIS CENTURY ON PERHAPS THE QUICKEST PITCH OF ALL
On a terrifyingly quick pitch at Perth in 1991, Tendulkar played a lone hand against a rampant Australia side. Despite his masterpiece, his 114 occupying 161 balls, India would lose the match by 300 runs. Tendulkar has said that the innings was perhaps his purest in Test cricket; while the legend goes that Don Bradman’s wife saw the innings on TV and called in her husband to watch it too, struck by the similarities in their techniques.
EVEN WITH NO SLEEP, HE WAS UNSTOPPABLE
The match was huge – a 2003 World Cup group game against Pakistan. Sachin had not slept soundly for 12 nights before it. Against a pace attack featuring Wasim, Waqar and a peak-speed Shoaib Akhtar, Sachin was on another plane, smashing 98 from just 75 balls to flatten Pakistan’s target before Shoaib – after conceding a six and two fours to Sachin in his first over – exacted his revenge, bouncing him out just two runs shy of his century.
HE COULD BOWL A DEADLY DEATH OVER
Under lights against South Africa in the semi-final of the Hero Cup at Eden Gardens in 1993, with the tourists needing just six runs from the final over, India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin turned to his golden boy to bowl it. Sachin had failed with the bat but with the ball that night he was inspired. A run out from his first delivery preceded three dot balls to Allan Donald, before a single to long-on brought Brian McMillan on strike. McMillan swiped but was deceived in the flight and failed to connect, sending 100,000 Kolkata devotees into dreamland.
HE ALMOST WON THIS TEST AGAINST PAKISTAN ALL BY HIMSELF
After a duck in the first dig at Chennai in 1999, Tendulkar got busy in the run-chase, making a brilliant 136 on a wearing pitch as the rest of the top six managed 25 runs between them. Saqlain Mushtaq eventually got him, and the tail fell away soon after, with India falling 13 agonising runs shy of the 271 target.
HE WAS THE SUBJECT OF THIS INCREDIBLE PHOTO
The scene was Mumbai, Sachin’s 200th and final Test match, and photographer Atul Kamble wanted to capture the moment: “Since it would be the last time anyone saw Tendulkar walking out to bat in international cricket, I did not want a regulation action photo but something that shows the kind of affection he is held in.” The image would win the Wisden/MCC Photo of the Year for 2013.
HE TOOK CATCHES SO GOOD, EVEN THE OPPOSITION CLAPPED
On his Lord’s debut in 1990, Sachin failed with the bat but lit up the place with a catch for the ages, tearing in from long-off and bending forward to snaffle a skyer with one hand and hurl it skywards, all in one motion. Even the batsman, Allan Lamb, applauded.
HE COULD BATTLE THROUGH BLOWS
Joining the fray at Sialkot with India four down for 38 and Waqar Younis pushing in off the sightscreen, Sachin, just 16 and in his debut series, was immediately struck on the bridge of the nose by a vicious bumper. Stemming the blood and gathering his thoughts, he re-took his guard and hit his next ball for four. He would make 57 to help India save the Test.
HIS FIRST HUNDRED WAS ONE TO REMEMBER
Bushy-haired, bashful and sporting oversized Gavaskar-like pads, the 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar delivered the first of his century of centuries, his 117* against an attack of Angus Fraser, Devon Malcolm and Chris Lewis ensuring that India saved the 1990 Old Trafford Test. “There will be plenty more hundreds to flow from this young man’s bat…” said Richie Benaud on the BBC. "I just hope I’m around to see them."
HE MADE A CENTURY WHICH CHEERED A NATION IN TOUGH TIMES
After the horrors of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008, England returned to India to resume their tour at Chennai in a spirit of reconciliation, and a nation in need of salving found it in their favourite son, Sachin willing himself to an unbeaten 103 as India claimed what was then the fourth-highest successful run-chase in Test history.
HE HELPED INDIA TO THEIR 2011 WORLD CUP WIN
It was by no means a classic, but by sheer force of will and personality, Sachin compiled a match-winning 85 in the biggest one-dayer of his career up to that point – the Cricket World Cup 2011 semi-final. On home soil and knowing this was his last chance of World Cup glory, Sachin scrapped for 115 balls, and with some assistance from the fates – he was dropped four times – managed to post the highest score of the match to steer India to the final.
HE COULD RESTRAIN HIMSELF WHEN NECESSARY
Undone by the cover-drive earlier in 2003/04 series against Australia, Sachin demonstrated gargantuan abstinence to eschew any tempting drive balls, putting the shot in his locker and accumulating through the leg-side to make his then-highest Test score at Sydney. India racked up over 700, Sachin walked off 241 not out, and India had shared the spoils in a series in Australia for only the third time in their history.