5 times Team India surrendered after Sachin Tendulkar's wicket

No words can define how important Sachin Tendulkar was for the team when he played the game. For the two decades and a half that the master played the game, he was always the very best and without a doubt, the most important player for the team. Sachin Tendulkar has always been the synonym for perfection, elegance, and inspiration.

There have been a lot of instances when not only India but the entire world saw how much Team India depended on a little man of 5 feet 5 inches… how a little man carried the weight of a billion people’s expectations on his shoulders and kept meeting them again and again. For the entire 90s and a major part of the next decade, the team depended too much on the master blaster. As a result, there were many instances when the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar meant certain victory for the opponent.

Here are a few of the many of such incidents:

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#5 India vs South Africa, World Cup 2011

In the entire World Cup 2011, the only game that India lost was the one against South Africa at Nagpur. What people might have forgotten is that India got a fantastic start in that game. In fact, for the better part of the game, the team had a spectacular run rate.

With Sehwag scoring 73 and Sachin scoring his 99th international hundred - 111 - India got the start that they were looking for. After the first wicket, Sachin and Gambhir had a 125 run stand. At this stage, everybody hoped to see a score of 350 by the end, but all that they got to see was a collapse.

When Sachin got out, India’s score was 267 in 39.4 overs, and the next eight wickets fell down for a miserable 29 runs and India was reduced to 296 runs.

South Africa did not have any huge innings like Sachin’s but almost everyone in the first nine got a two-digit score and three of them got 50… and that’s how they managed to win the game.

#4 India vs Australia, Sharjah, 1998

Arguably the best innings of Sachin’s entire career and in fact, one of the best ODI innings ever played, in the desert storm at Sharjah is everyone’s favourite. Every Sachin fan has obviously watched that innings over and over again. But what most of the people fail to see is how he was fighting alone in the qualifying game.

India required 237 runs in 47 overs and Sachin scored 142 runs out of it. He smashed every bowler out of the park and made sure that the team qualified for the final game. It was a one-man show. People went bananas over the great innings that the little young man was playing but all of them failed to notice that the next highest score in the entire team was just 39.

Again, Sachin’s wicket was the fifth one and the score was 242 at the end of 43 overs. India was chasing 284 and still ended up losing the game.

#3 India vs Australia, fourth ODI, 2009-10

This is one of the most recent instances of this kind. Playing first, Australia had scored a massive total of 349 runs. Such a huge total reminded all the Indian fans of the 2003 World Cup final where Australia had set a similar target and India had failed miserably.

It was obviously not going to be easy. But Sachin made it look like it was a walk in the park. For the initial part of the innings, Sachin was a bit slow as he was cruising towards 17,000 runs. But once he crossed the number, he started playing his shots and went on to play one of the best innings of his entire career.

The Australian bowlers found themselves toyed with and they were smashed all over the park. During the entire course of his innings, Sachin made sure that the required run rate never reached even eight. Against a team like Australia, one can imagine what an effort it would have taken to make sure of this.

Sachin scored a mammoth 175 runs. Not because of the huge score, but the kind of pressure that Sachin played this innings under, it is surely one of his best innings ever. But what’s sad about it is that such a great innings went into a losing cause.

When Sachin got out, India needed 19 runs in 17 balls and the powerplay was on. It was quite achievable and still, the team ended up losing. There was one other half-century in the team. Like many other times, Sachin gave his best and still, India lost!

#2 India vs Pakistan, Chennai, 1999

An India-Pakistan game is always a high-pressure one. This time, the pressure was even more. The two countries were on the verge of a war and there were huge political tensions and the teams were under a huge amount of pressure before this test match.

After the second innings, Pakistan set a target of 271 runs in front of India. This was obviously not an easy one against a bowling attack like Pakistan’s.

For a score of 6 runs, India lost the first two wickets… which was not really a surprise. Then came Sachin, the hope of the entire country on the ground.

Sachin started playing his usual game but wickets kept falling down at the other end. In the last few hours of the game, Sachin was seen getting cramps and his back was worsening. On the other hand, Saqlain Mushtaq was at his very best. With no support at all from the other end a sore back, Sachin kept playing his shots but eventually got out.

When Sachin got out, India needed 17 runs and there were three wickets in hand. India lost the game by 12 runs… which tells the entire story!

#1 India vs Sri Lanka, World Cup 1996

The 1996 World Cup was played in India and naturally, the Indian team was under a lot of pressure. They had already won the high-voltage game against Pakistan and everybody was expecting them to win the semi-final against Sri Lanka.

But who can forget what happened at Eden Gardens, Kolkata? It was one of the darkest days in the history of the game. As usual, Sachin Tendulkar was playing and everybody in the crowd started sensing a win.

Chasing a target of 252 runs, India was on course. However, Sachin got out after scoring a hard-fought 65 in 88 balls. The score at this point was 98 and Sachin was the second wicket.

Then the world saw one of the biggest collapses in the history of Indian cricket. From 98/2, India was down to 120/8 in 34.1 overs. For the people who did not watch the game, it might be impossible to imagine a team losing 6 wickets in a shameful span of just 22 runs.

The crowd lost their cool and set a stand on fire. The game had to be stopped in between and Sri Lanka was declared the winner. The people who watched can surely recall the image of Vinod Kambli walking off the ground in tears like it was yesterday.