As the Cricket Galaxy comes to terms with Sachin Tendulkar’s decision to bring the curtains down on his illustrious 24 year career, here is my pick for the most defining knocks from that willow of his, which has been compared to the Excalibur. These knocks are defining, for not only Tendulkar’s career but also for my own life. Here are my picks:
The Vivian Richards of India
This is my 1st impression of Tendulkar. The match was abandoned and India and Pakistan played a “friendly” match – like they could every play a “friendly”. Pakistan put a lot of runs on the board in 20 Overs and I think Ravi Shastri or WV Raman, like they often used to, made it look even more. Enter Tendulkar and he scored 50 something runs in 18 balls and tore into Abdul Qadir. The knock was so mesmerizing that we forgot the match we were playing in our galli [Lane/street in hindi] and kept talking about this 16 year old who showed Indians can bat like Vivian Richards too!
Magic in Australia
I have mentioned this in my previous post “The Indian in Mumbai Indians”. I know all of you are thinking about the 114* in Perth Test match, but unfortunately I did not watch it live. This performance of Tendulkar, though I remember very clearly and will remain one of my fondest memories of his. My next memory of Sachin is from the World Cup in 1992 – The 1st World Cup in coloured clothing, it was great to see Sachin’s exploits during this tournament. The defining moment has to be his Man of the Match performance against arch-rivals and brothers across the border, Pakistan. I remember Sachin smoking Aaqib Javed for a boundary over long on and his dismissal of Sohail at a very critical moment when Pakistan were threatening to take control of the match. Krishnamacharya Srikanth took that catch!
Please let us know your favorite INDulkar knock in our poll here.
To be Continued……
SportzCosmos 
Personally I like the following encounters: Sachin and Mc Grath : Sachin and Waqar/Wasim and of course the most recent Steyn/ Morkel and Sachin….I am sure no one else can play these great fast bowlers with such confidence and fantastic technique…(in tests of course)
The great innings which i cherish was 243 at the sydney cricket ground really a truemaster class
me tooo
D: Good points! That is one thing that makes Sachin special: Dravid, Ponting, Kallis for example didn’t really face Walsh or Ambrose at their best. Lara never really fronted upto Steyn.
Kutti: You mean 241*, right? 🙂
sorry it’s 241….
Oh there are so many to pick from. Hope to see more parts of this post soon.
“undisputed champion of cricket
True that. deserved to be called MASTER
Batting Pick
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1. Desert storm centuries against Australia in 1998 . Sachin took India to finals and eventually gifted India with the title single handed . Amazing feat this one !! .
2. 2003 world cup game against Pakistan , where Tendulkar launched attacked against Akthar and shielded Viru (due respect to Viru !!) from Akram. This is my pick as the stats always indicate that Sachin cannot handle pressure and this one was against those odds !!.
Bowling Pick
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It is non other than notorious semi final between India vs SAF in the Hero cup final . Ball was not given to Kapil / Prabhakar / Kumble but Sachin (Azhar is another skipper like MSD who goes with Instinct !!) and it turned India’s fate in the tournament . To me , this triumph set a tone for India’s victories in ODIs in the later years.
Correction : It is not Hero cup Final but Semi-Final . my bad !! 🙂
As I mentioned, it is a very easy mistake to make 🙂
@ Chandu:
Welcome to the site 🙂
Batting picks = terrific. Very good point about handling pressure, which I dont agree with, but definitely these knocks are platinum-standard!
bowling pick – i keep thinking that match is the final! that was how terrific SRT was that day.
another bowling pick – Eden Gardens 2001 – googly 2 Warne – a moment so full of irony, one can write a book just on that one ball 🙂
Warne’s googly never worked against SRT….
HI! Every fan of Sachin Tendulkar will surely remembers his records and heights he reached in the world of Cricket. However, as a person and by nature he is very humble and soft spoken and kind enough to others and moreover, he’s a very good social being. One incident which I understand that Sachin, when he was constructing his house wrote letters to all the residents of that particular street to excuse him for the disturbance causing to them at the time of construction period. this simple incident shows his social responsibility and attitude. I wish him a very great success for him in future and also good health and wealth.
VKS:
Welcome to our site and thank you for such a wonderful comment. I agree with what you have said and I love the incident you have shared with us. It really describes what Sachin Tendulkar is all about.
Great post Sir! Thums up to your post!
VKS.. a really good post against a man like sachin tendulkar and a great human being….
Sachin Tendulkar’s long and illustrious career has featured countless batting displays that will live long in the memory. But what are the moments that will come to define his career according to the man himself?
Sachin Tendulkar reveals his top five career-defining moments…..
1) 119 Not out in OLD TRAFFORD TEST 1990…. at the age of 17 years
2) 114 VS AUSTRALIA AT PERTH 1992…. Dismantling the Aussies
3) 82 VS NZ at Auckland 1994…. One day Player Emerges
4) 241 Not Out VS AUS in 2004 At Sydney… The Arch Manipulator
5) Finally a World Cup Winner 2011
Sai…. Thanks for sharing…..
Wonderful knocks all those…. what are your 5 favorite SRT knocks? 🙂
My best knock was…. 241 Vs AUS 2004, and World cup winner 2011
All are terrific knocks…. and big tribute to the little master
Pingback: Growing Up With Tendulkar | SportzCosmos
all of u have been missing some of his brilliant knock.here it is:169vsSA at Capetown,155vsSA in Bloemfontin,176vsWI in Kolkota.how did u forget those knock?
@peious:
Great knocks. you mention. I did not mention these in my post as I hope to write more on this topic….. and continue this theme.
that 169 is a personal favourite of mine and our other columnist Rajneesh Verma mentioned it in his tribute to SRT:
https://sportzcosmos.com/2013/11/07/growing-up-with-tendulkar/
155 is a super terrific knock and if I am not mistaken, the 1st hundred of SRT’s I watched on television in USA!
176 has to be his tribute to Kolkatta…. everybit as legendary as Rahul Dravid’s 180, if not Laxman’s 281….