As Tendulkar turns 40, Rajdeep Sardesai relives key moments in God’s career through tweets – Part I

Although he recently took sanyas from Twitter, Rajdeep Sardesai made an exception and offered to commemorate Sachin’s 40th birthday celebrations by going down memory lane and tweeting key moments in the little master’s glittering career. With an Old Monk in hand, soulful music in the background, and footage of the Sachin’s greatest knocks, Rajdeep began his tweet-marathon:

India’s tour of Pakistan in 1989: It all began in 1989 during India’s tour of Pakistan. It was the pre-liberalization era. Sunny’s departure had left a giant void in Indian cricket. Paaji referred to Kapil Dev. On November 15, 1989 in Karachi, a curly haired 15 year old made his Test debut, taking his guard against a formidable pace battery – Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. It was baptism by fire; A new star lit up the cricketing firmament, one whose spectral luminosity the world had never seen before and perhaps never will.

December 1989; 4th Test, Sialkot: In the 4th Test, a Waqar Younus bouncer hit Sachin on the face, drawing blood. He nonchalantly wiped the blood off his face, declined treatment, and resumed his batting.

The great man’s ODI debut began on a low key note as he was dismissed without troubling the scores. But then all great rivers begin as trickles.

India’s summer tour of England;  Aug 14, 1990, Old Trafford: And soon, Sachin scored the first of his 100 centuries, fittingly enough against England at the age of 17 years, 112 days, the second youngest Test centurion ever. The floodgates had opened.

Oct 1991, Sharjah: And on some occasions, he carried the day for his country with his bowling. In Sharjah, against the West Indies, Sachin, with his military medium pace, accounted for four West Indian scalps.

Within 3 years of his debut, Indian batting came to revolve around and be over-reliant on Sachin. If Sachin failed with his bat, India lost. If Sachin fired, India won. A bit like the way Mumbai Indians now depend on Sachin in the converse sense. (Editor: Hehe. Just kidding)

Mar 1992, World Cup in Australia: So India went into the 1992 World Cup, with Sachin as the lynch-pin of the batting line up. We lost to most teams, except the team that would go on to lift the cup. Sachin’s first of the many memorable knocks in ensuring that India had a 100% success rate against the old enemy in high voltage World Cup encounters:

Nov 1993: Fast forward to The Hero Cup in 1993 involving India, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe to commemorate Cricket Association of Bengal’s golden jubilee .  In a cliff-hanger semi-final against South Africa, where both teams hung on till the very end, it all boiled down to South Africa requiring 4 runs off the final over. It required nerves of steel to bowl that over. And whom does India turn to?

March 27, 1994, Eden Park, Auckland: Meanwhile pressure was building on Sachin to score his first ODI century. Would opening the innings do the trick? Sachin opened the innings in ODIs for the first time in New Zealand, scoring 82 off 49 balls.

24th May, 1995: Sachin scored off the field too, getting hitched to Anjali, for the start of a very fruitful and unbeaten partnership.

1996 World Cup, India: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka co-hosted the World Cup. Luckily, no Bangladesh then. Sachin once again led the charge.

March 1996, World Cup Quarter-Finals: India met Pakistan in the quarterfinals in Bangalore. Sachin laid the foundation for India’s competitive total with a well compiled 43 with Sidhu going on to be India’s top scorer. Jadeja’s lofty hits, particularly off Waqar Younis, would propel India to a formidable total. Now it all depended on India’s fast slow bowlers, messrs Prasad and Srinath, aided by Jumbo, to see India through:

Mar 1996: Alas, India would lose to those annoying Lankans in the semis in Eden Gardens. Sachin would have to wait for another 16 years to savour India’s triumph.

India’s tour of England, 1996: The summer of 1996 saw India touring England. The first Test at Edgbaston established an unwritten rule: when Sachin Tendulkar got out, India collapsed and when he held the innings together, India scored.

The otherwise unremarkable series, which India, in keeping with its very poor away record, would go on to lose, witnessed the golden debut of two superstars at the Mecca of cricket, Lord’s- Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. After the series, Sachin would take over the captaincy of the team from a discredited Azharuddin.

21st Oct, 1996, Bangalore: The Titan Cup saw one of the greatest ever matches to be played the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. A Sachin Tendulkar-led India took on the mighty Aussies. A fine ton by Aussie skipper Mark Tayler led Australia to a fairly competitive total of 215. The pressure was on Sachin to deliver, as wickets kept falling at the other end. And in style, he did, with a steady knock of 88. The real show stealers, however, were local boys Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble, who did the impossible, with the bat and took India home, with a key partnership at the end. To this day, people still talk about the partnership and will probably never stop.

1997 – West Indies tour: India toured the West Indies in 1997, with many players surely cursing and asking themselves why they did so. Team India put out a disappointing performance, the home team only seemed to comfortable. Sachin’s captaincy began to be questioned – was it the pressure which was affecting him?

1997 – Independence Cup: The Chinnaswamy stadium has always been home to some of Tendulkar’s finest innings and this day witnessed yet another mind-blowing, exhilarating display of batting from the little Master. There are some cricketers who are called “One-match wonders” – they play one match, make an impact and are never to be seen again. This match brought in New Zealand bowler Heath Davis into the fray, only for Sachin Tendulkar to thrash him to all corners of the ground. Heath Davis didn’t ever play against India again. One nightmare was probably enough for a lifetime.

April 1st, 1998: This was no April Fool’s joke – A day on which Sachin Tendulkar stunned the Aussies with his bowling, scalping 5 wickets for 32 runs, marking his career-best bowling figures and also a fine welcome for the Nehru Stadium into the world of cricket. Kochi would later go on to become another lucky ground for Tendulkar, as he would take another 5 wicket haul against Pakistan.

22nd April 1998, Sharjah: Tendulkar may be remembered in the cricketing world as the greatest cricketer ever and this one innings is proof enough as to why. That hot day in Sharjah made its presence felt with a desert storm, but soon made way for what can only be termed as the biggest storm in the history of cricket. It is said that Tony Grieg could not speak for 2 days after presiding over the commentary for Tendulkar’s innings in this match. Pundits regard this as one of Sachin’s most domineering knocks in which he single-handedly won the cup for India.

The 1999 World Cup in England:  Sachin was once again the fulcrum of India’s batting as India embarked on its WC campaign in England. Sachin’s father and great poet, Shri Ramesh Tendulkar, passed away, forcing Sachin to return to India for the last rites. India narrowly lost its league match to Zimbabwe in Sachin’s absence. Considering the carry over point system, that proved crucial, jeopardizing India’s chances of making it to the semis. Sachin returned and scored a fighting century against Kenya.

Indian cricket would be hit by the match fixing scandal in the late 90s. Sachin would consider it the most difficult period of his career.

courtesy: The Unreal Times