Tendulkar, the Legend, to Surpass another Record - Part II
Tendulkar has had his stint with county cricket as well. And it was not an ordinary signing, because the entire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Geoffrey-Boycott-c58776 to allow Tendulkar to join their side. He went on to win matches and hearts with excellent batting and being one of the best brand ambassadors that the country could have had.
In November 1992, during a Test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, Sachin Tendulkar went on to become the youngest batsman in the history of Test match cricket to cross the 1000-run mark. He achieved this feat on his way to another century, and at an age of less than 20!
Rather surprisingly, Tendulkar had never hit a double century in first class cricket and that was a complaint that many fans had of him. In February 1998, Tendulkar hit his first ever double century in first class and it came at his home ground against the touring Australians. It was to be the beginning of a superb and exciting rivalry with another legendary cricketer in Test match cricket, Shane Warne. Australia was so shell-shocked by that knock that they never recovered on that tour and lost the series 1-2.
But even for a talented cricketer like Tendulkar, captaincy remained the most difficult task. He was first named the captain of the Indian team at the young age of 23, becoming India’s youngest to do so. Tendulkar failed to handle the burden and India just managed to win three of the 17 Tests that they played under his leadership. He was consequently removed from the post of captain after a 15-month tenure in January 1998.
After http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Azharuddin-c76823. This time, Tendulkar had even opposed the appointment but the Indian selectors felt he was the best choice and fit the bill. Unfortunately, the second stint was no better and Tendulkar finally gave up on the job in 2000, when India were hammered 3-0 by Australia under him.
Injuries played a part at various points in his career, and some were almost career-threatening ones. Yet, the back spasms and the tennis elbows aside, he came back stronger from each one of them, before overtaking the legendary Sir Don Bradman for the highest number of Test centuries as he scored his 30th century in August 2002.
The series in Australia in 2004 is one of the most special series of Tendulkar’s career. His innings of 241 not out in the final Test against Australia at Sydney is regarded as one of his best ever Test innings given that Tendulkar is said to have eschewed all the strokes on the off-side till he had got to 150, in order to overcome a technical issue with his batting. Steve Waugh finally saved that Test for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and denied India a series victory as the series ended in a 1-1 draw, but that innings went down in the annals of the game as one of the most technically perfect display of batting.
Tendulkar became the fourth player in the world to cross the 10k mark, and he did this in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
He went on to surpass Sunil Gavaskar’s record of most centuries in Tests – of 34 – in December 2005 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 by playing an innings of 109, a knock that made both Tendulkar, and his wife, heave a sigh of relief, given that it took many innings coming!
Today, in the 166 Test matches he has played so far, Sachin Tendulkar has scored a total of 13447 runs at an average of 55.56. He has 47 hundreds and 54 fifties to his name, which are the most ever.
His closed rival is Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. Ponting has played in 144 Tests and has over 11k runs at an average of 55. He has 39 Test hundreds to his name, and will probably need a couple of years of good cricket after Tendulkar’s retirement to even think of overtaking him!
There was a time when the race between Tendulkar and Ponting in terms of their centuries was neck-in-neck, but then Tendulkar seems to have taken off in the last few years, whereas Ponting lost his form.
Another cricketer, who is often considered in the same league as Tendulkar, is West Indian Brain Lara. If one was to take a look at Lara’s record we would find, that he has scored almost 12000 runs at an average of 52 in 131 matches. He has 34 hundreds to his name but among those is also the highest Test score of 400.
Now, as Tendulkar sits on the cusp of another record, it remains to be seen whether this one will be broken or it would stand to remain as one of those untouchables!
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