Sachin Tendulkar: Through the Years

He is considered to be God in the Indian Subcontinent. He is regarded as a living legend, an encyclopedia of cricket. He is seen as the idol for many young cricketers. He is a man who has continuously set benchmarks for himself to beat and also for others to look up to. There goes a famous quote which goes, “If you want to commit a crime, do it when Sachin is batting because the entire world is watching him.”

A man who commands so much reverence from around the world, ‘He’ is none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. When the word ‘milestone’ is mentioned in cricket, there is really one man to turn to and that is Sachin Tendulkar, for the number of milestones that he has crossed and the records that he has shattered is countless.

“Sometime stones [are] thrown at you and you have to convert those into milestones”

This post is a celebration of the milestones that Sachin has crossed in his illustrious career.

Domestic Career:

Being inspired by India’s World Cup triumph in 1983 which sent the nation in a cricket frenzy, Sachin began his cricketing career with an early in his school days. In the Azad Maidan Trophy in Februaury 1988, Sachin and his good friend Vinod Kambli shared a record unbroken stand of 664 for third wicket while playing for their school Sharadhasram against St.Xaviers. Sachin remained 326 not out at the end of the match which hit the headlines and made the nation sit up and take notice about the rise of a cricketing genius.

After making waves with his blistering rise at school level, his maiden first class season was an amazing success. Whatever the ‘Little Master’ touched turned to be gold. Sachin scored centuries in the maiden match of each domestic Tournament that he played in, viz. Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy.

• Sachin scored 100* for Mumbai against Gujarat in his Ranji debut season 1988-89 to become only the second youngest player to do so then at the age of 15 years and 232 days.
• He scored 103* for Rest of India against Delhi at Delhi in the Irani Trophy debut season 1989-90 season.
• He scored 152 for West Zone against East Zone at Guwahati in 1990-91 his Duleep Trophy debut season.

Man in white:

After scorching the domestic circuit with centuries, Sachin debuted for Team India in test cricket. On his debut, he was only the third youngest player (16 years, 205 days ) to do so. The other two were Mushtaq Mohammed (15 years and 125 days) and Aaqib Javeed (16 years and 189 days). Now holding the tag of the leading run scorer in Test cricket, he is only second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to have surpassed 10,000 runs.

In the company of greats

Once he made his debut, history continued to beckon and records continued to be shattered. Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990 thus becoming only the second youngest cricketer then to achieve this feat. Mushtaq Mohammed was the youngest player in the history of test cricket to score a century. He scored a ton in early 1990s. However now the record belongs to Mohammed Ashraful who achieved the feat in the 2001-02 calender year. Nonetheless, it is inarguable that Sachin set the trend.

He made himself a “World Figure” before he completed 20 years of age. By then, he had already scored 5 centuries. This unique feat is yet to be achieved by any cricketer in the history of test cricket.

Early limelight

On December 2005 in a Test Match against Sri Lanka, he achieved the unique feat of most test centuries then (35 then) surpassing the count of the original Master Sunil Gavaskar (34). Not resting on his laurels, the Little Master has pushed on and currently has 51 test centuries, thus becoming the only player to score 50 centuries.

Universally hailed by his peers

Although he began his career as No 5 batsmen, he batted for India at No. 4 position. Incidentally once when Matthew Hayden was asked about Sachin Tendulkar, he said “I have seen the GOD. He bats at number 4 for India in tests.” Such is the respect Sachin has commanded amongst his peers in recent years due to his versatility and commitment.

For a man who holds so many individual records, Sachin is incredibly humble and is a complete team player. He has been involved in several different partnerships thus highlighting his ability to play with different batsmen. He and Rahul Dravid have been involved in 18 hundred plus partnerships in tests. They hold the record for most centuries by any pair. Sachin has also been involved in 17 double hundred partnerships.

Sachin also happens to be the only player to aggregate 1000 runs against 7 different test playing nations. Moreover he has scored centuries against all test playing nations. He was the third cricketer to achieve this feat after former Aussie Skipper Steve Waugh and Gary Kirsten.

On August 3, 2010 by appearing in a test match against Sri Lanka, Sachin become the most capped test player (169) overcoming Steve Waugh (168) who held the record then. Sachin further has a unique record of having been in the winning side in 56 matches while playing for India.

While not very successful as a captain, he has made records in that aspect of the game as well. He holds the record for highest individual score by any Indian Captain by scoring 217 against New Zealand in 1999-00. The previous record was held by Sunil Gavaskar (205 ).

Man in Blue:

While he has set the record books on fire in test cricket, ODI cricket is where Sachin will always be remembered for, for his extraordinary exploits with the willow. Sachin has been considered as the “Most Destructive Batsmen of this Era” in One Day International Cricket. When he debuted for Team India at the age of 16 years and 238 days, he was only the second youngest cricketer to do so. Only Aaqib Javeed debuted younger than Sachin at he age of 16 years and 127 days.

Having scored over 18,000 runs in One Day Internationals, he is currently the leading run scorer in ODIs, averaging a whopping 45.16. As far as the records for centuries and half centuries go, Sachin holds the dominion there too with 48 centuries and 95 half centuries, a feat unparalleled so far in ODI cricket.

One of the most memorable moments of his ODI career was when he scored back-to-back centuries at Sharjah, out of which one was in the final against Australia. He scored a flawless century to guide India home in the final where he was brutal against Shane Warne, hitting the Aussie leggie out of the park throughout the innings. Warne later conceded defeat saying, “I’ll bowl with my helmets on. I fear that he would down the pitch and hit me for a six over my head.”

February 24, 2010 will always be remembered as a red letter day in the history of cricket. That was the day when he directed C.Langveldt to point to score a run, thus becoming the first batsman in the history of ODI cricket to score 200 runs in a single match. The double century which will be remembered for eons to come came in 147 balls. After having come close to the mark several times during his career with three 175 plus scores and five 150 plus scores, Sachin finally scaled Mount Impossible on that fateful day in February.

The Two-Ton Man

Now considered one of the deadliest openers in the history of ODI cricket, Sachin was not always an opening batsman in his career as he had begun as a middle order batsman. Once in a match against New Zealand, he was promoted to open the innings when India were chasing 145 runs. He scored a 40 ball 82, which is even now considered as one of few aggressive innings of then time. There has no looking back since then as Sachin has transformed himself into arguably the greatest opening batsman ever, having scored over 14,000 runs till now as a opener with 41 hundreds and 72 fifties in 318 innings. Together with Sourav Ganguly, he formed the deadliest opening partnership in cricket. The pair scored 6609 runs in 136 matches with 21 centuries and 23 half centuries.

Besides being a batsman, he is a very handy bowler. He has scalped 200 plus victims in his international career. Further he has captured 5 wickets in a match twice. He became the first Indian to score a century and to capture 4 wickets in a match, a feat which was achieved against Australia at Dhaka on October 28 ,1998.

Deadly duo

He holds the record for the most number of Most Man-of-the-Match awards(60) and Most Man-of-the-series awards(16) by any cricketer.

World Cup Campaign:

If World Cup is the greatest stage in cricket, there has been no stopping the God of Cricket there too. He has scored over 1700 runs at a stunning average of over 60 with 13 fifties and 4 centuries with the highest score being a 152 against Namibia in 2003 World Cup. He also holds a record for scoring most runs in a single edition of a World cup, having scored a mammoth 673 runs in the 2003 edition.

On the whole, if records are the measure of the greatness of a cricket, then Sachin Tendulkar is without a doubt the greatest cricketer of all time, for he has shattered and set new records in absolutely every form of cricket, every aspect of the game. A true living legend, Sachin Tendulkar is one man who can still bring a nation to a stand still even at the age of 38.

Quotes Unplugged:

The following are the few quotes about Sachin Tendulkar.

• Don Bradman, Australia: “Once When I watch him play, I told my wife he bats just like me.”
• Matthew Hayden, Australia: “I have seen the GOD. He bats at number 4 for India in tests.”
• Brian Lara, West Indies: “If Cricket is a Religion, then Sachin is the only God”
• Allan Border, Australia: “Its Scary! Where the hell do we bowl to him.”
• Anil Kumble, India: “I am fortunate that I have to bowl to him only in nets”
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India: “He has scored 16,000 runs. I have not even faced 16,000 balls.”
• Andy Flower, Zimbabwe: “What we need is Ten Tendulkars!”