Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, treated like God by his fans, ended the long and tiring wait for his 100th international century on Friday at Dhaka's Shere Bangla National Stadium.
Sachin hits 100th ton
Tendulkar, the leading run scorer in the history of both Test and one-day cricket, achieved the most-coveted ton by taking a single off Shakib Al Hasan against Bangladesh in Asia Cup. Tendulkar's century came off 138 balls and was studded with 10 fours and a six.
"I can't think of anything at this stage, it has been a tough phase for me," Tendulkar told Neo Cricket channel after his innings. "I started off the season well but was luckless. It does not matter how many hundreds you score, you still have to grind it out."
"When I got the 99th century, no one spoke about it. I guess it was the media which started it. Everywhere I went people were talking about my 100th hundred," he said.
He was finally out for 114, caught behind off Mashrafe bin Mortaza, who then ran over to shake his hand.
The master blaster's 99th century had come against South Africa on March 12, 2011, at Nagpur during the World Cup. Friday's century was Tendulkar's 49th in one-dayers; he has 51 Test centuries.
Tendulkar, who was left stranded on 99 international hundreds for a year and four days, played Test series against England, the West Indies and Australia. He also featured in the recently concluded triseries in Australia but his bid to become the first batsman to score 100 international hundreds remained unfulfilled, although he came close on a few occasions.
Tendulkar has set a benchmark unlikely to be surpassed in his lifetime, with his closest rival, Ricky Ponting, on 68 international centuries and approaching the twilight of his career at the age of 37.
Since his international debut at 16 against archrival Pakistan in 1989, Tendulkar has been compared to not only top batsmen of his era like Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq, but also to Australian great Donald Bradman as the best batsman ever.
Bradman, who retired in 1948 with an average of 99.94 runs, said Tendulkar reminded him of his own playing style.
Tendulkar has defied age and injury at every stage of his career. Whenever injuries threatened to stall his career, he pushed his body to the limit, and sometimes even beyond. Even the most threatening of all his injuries - the painful tennis elbow (in 2004) - couldn't break him. He cried out in agony, waited with hope for almost a year, tackled it with determination and ultimately conquered it like only he can.
In February 2010, Tendulkar became the first in world cricket to score a double hundred in one-day internationals, while in December 2010 he became the first to score 50 Test tons, both landmarks achieved against the best pace attack in world cricket - South Africa.
Wisden, regarded as the bible of cricket, named Tendulkar as the leading cricketer in the world for the year 2010.
In 2007, Wisden had identified Tendulkar as the player to have won such an award for 1998 - had it been instituted then.
Tendulkar, who realised his long-cherished dream when India won the World Cup in April 2011, was also named in Wisden's 2009 Test XI, at his accustomed number four position.
His passion for the game not only keeps him going, but also gives him the opportunity to reinvent himself. Each time he goes out on to the field he seems to be raising the bar for himself.
Comments
Post a Comment