"The little master" continues to impress, even 20 years into his career. It seems like an eternity ago that Sachin Tendulkar made his first Test hundred way back in 1990 at Old Trafford. It was just his second Test. His latest hundred- his 48th, has come in his 168th Test. This highest number of Test matches played by a single cricketer, a record which Tendulkar shares with the "Ice Man" Steve Waugh.
It was a special ton and it came at an ideal time for India, suddenly 3-173 after crusing at 0-165. Virender Sehwag had come within 1 run of scoring his fourth century in consecutive Tests(109 and 165 vs South Africa, February 2009, following his century in the Indian second innings of the Test prior to this one) but was stumped by Sangkkara off the wily spin of Test newcomer Suraj Randiv. Rahul "the wall" Dravid, came and went, another dismissal for Randiv, although this was a controverial LBW.
Tendulkar brought up his century on the sweep, dispatching Suraj Randiv for his 13th boundary of the innings. While some have complained that his strike rate has slowed in the past few years, this has merely showed his adapability in engeneering his batting to suit the flow of an innings. And it is not as if he is not able to score at a canter- during this year's edition of the IPL, Sachin carried the bat with an unbeaten 89 from 59 deliveries. The knock was enriched with 10 boundaries and 2 sixes. It was a wonderfully timed innings, which began slowly, lasting through an early collapse before unleashing into top gear for the final three overs of the Mumbai innings.
If hewas to reach the coveted 50 century milestone before the end of the series, it another tick off to-do list for Tendulkar- when he broke Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries against Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2005, Gavaskar spoke to Sachin and threatened to come after him for breaking the record unless he scored 50 centuries for India! Ever since Gavaskar's threats, it has been his main ambition to reach the 50 century milestone.
No comments:
Post a Comment