On his 47th birthday, the International CIrkcet Council (ICC) took a poll for the best ODI knock of the legendary cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, and the blistering 143 scored against Australia in 1998 came out at the top. The 131-ball knock, with nine fours and five sixes, became popularly known as the ‘Desert Storm’ after a sand-storm in Sharjah interrupted India’s chase.
Tendulkar came hard on one of the best bowlers like Shane Warne, Damien Fleming, and Michael Kasprowicz but his team lost. His blitz narrowly edged out his match-winning 98 against arch-rivals Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup group match. In the release of the results of the poll ICC wrote: “It was neck and neck until the end.”
Sachin, who played 200 Test matches and is now India’s biggest cricket legend in retirement, used his birthday to urge fans to stay at their respective homes during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
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Talking about the same to Star Sports, Sachin said, “They encouraged me and they prayed for me. What did they pray for? That Sachin shouldn’t get out and I should be at the crease. My wish for them is that they should also not get out. They should also stay inside the crease which means that they should stay at home, safe and healthy.”
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) relived the master blaster’s unbeaten century against England in the Chennai Test in 2008 in excerpts released on its Twitter feed.
Tendulkar went on to amass 103 in the second innings to guide India to a six-wicket win. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, a former India teammate, and other past and present cricketers paid tribute to Tendulkar. Current India skipper Virat Kohli said: “Happy birthday to the man whose passion for the game of cricket has inspired many.”
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Sachin made his international debut for India at the age of 16 in 1989 and broke almost every batting record before retiring in 2013. The former India skipper is the only cricketer to have scored 100 international centuries and is the highest run-scorer with 34,357 runs across formats.
