Sachin Tendulkar's success stories

As tendulkar provides his fans another chapter in cricketing history, mid day's clayton murzello lets you in on the stories surrounding the icon's most famous three-figure knocks

1990: Sunny's tip does the trick
Sachin Tendulkar's first Test hundred - at Old Trafford in 1990 was a match-saving effort. An evening before the Test was spent at former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer's place which was graced by some members of the Indian team including Tendulkar.


Sachin Tendulkar sports a wide smile on his 1990 tour of England where
he scored the first of his 50 Test centuries. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

The young batsman thrived on the opportunity of spending some quality time with Sunil Gavaskar, who advised him not to chase the ball on those English tracks. "Wait for the ball," was Gavaskar's advice. Tendulkar took that very seriously and helped himself to a masterly hundred a few days later.

1992: It all happened at the SCG
The next Test hundred from the blade of Sachin Tendulkar came in Sydney on the 1991-92 tour to Australia. Veteran Ravi Shastri took a double hundred off the Australians led by old warhorse Allan Border and got some lip service from his aggressive opponents while piling on the runs.

When Tendulkar noticed what his batting partner was being subjected to, he is believed to have told Shastri: "I will give it to them too." We don't know whether Tendulkar (19) wanted to return the favour in terms of words or deeds but Shastri told him to just do his thing with bat in hand.

And he did exactly that scored a classy, unbeaten 148 which made him the youngest ever to score a Test century at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

1992: Who's scared of WACA cracks?
Tendulkar has always maintained that his finest hundred was scored at Perth's Western Australia Cricket Association ground in 1992. His 114 was scored against the likes of pacemen Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Paul Reiffel and Mike Whitney.

Wicketkeeper and useful batsman Kiran More, with whom he put on 81 runs for the ninth wicket, remembers: "There were huge cracks on the pitch which you just couldn't take your eyes off. In fact, some of the cracks were so wide that you could actually put your hand into them.

"But we decided to try and forget about this and enjoy ourselves while building a partnership.

"To see him hitting the Aussie quicks on the up through the covers was exhilarating. Not only for me, but also for those in the slip cordon and elsewhere on the field.

"On more than one occasion I think heard tough nuts like Allan Border, Dean Jones and Mark Taylor say ¦ Jesus, this is something special."

Edgbaston solo
In the opening Test of the 1996 Test series against England at Edgbaston, Tendulkar scored a wondrous second innings 122 for a losing cause. The next top-scorer was Sanjay Manjrekar with 18. Richie Benaud didn't waste time in waxing eloquent on air about the hundred being the finest of the year. He went on to add, "and you won't see a better one next year too."

More in Chennai
the India vs Aus Chennai Test of 1998 was anyone's game till the fourth day. Coach Anshuman Gaekwad said that the team needed someone to score around 75 to gain a meaningful advantage. And Tendulkar told him that he would be the man to do it. "I asked for 75, but he got 155," recalled Gaekwad.

Inconsolable
IN the 1999 Chennai Test, Tendulkar was well on his way to scoring a match-winning hundred against arch-rivals Pakistan but was dismissed 17 runs short of the target. India ended up losing by 12 runs. Tendulkar was nowhere to be found at the presentation ceremony. When a journalist asked BCCI biggie Raj Singh Dungarpur as to where the batting maestro was, he said: "Weeping like a kid in the dressing room."

Rhythm & blues
Ajit Agarkar remembers how the then India captain was under severe pressure on the 1999-2000 tour of Aus: "There was a lot being said in the media with the team not faring well and there were statements coming out from India courtesy some Board officials too. I remember Sachin telling me that he was under a lot of pressure. We went to Melbourne for the second Test and he just lit up the MCG. To score that hundred amidst all that pressure was near unbelievable and I am sure he too felt very good about it."

Double glory
John Wright, who coached India from 2001 to 2005 remembers Tendulkar saying that he will not hit the ball in the air before batting against Zimbabwe in the Nagpur Test of 2001. "And he went on to score a double century. His double ton at Sydney in 2004 was unbelievable too. He didn't get a big score until then and in an amazing show of self discipline, he did not hit the ball through cover or cover point region."
(Inputs from Debasish Datta) -MiD-DAY.COM