Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been the talking point of Cricketing circle even before he played the first International match for India. The way he embraced International cricket and has kept his surprising momentum going, gives all the feel that the 2-decade YOUNG cricketer started playing cricket just yesterday. With not out on 99 ton, 100th ton is awaited by millions.
First-time in Headlines
Tendlya (the Little Master) got into the headlines when he partnered with his friend Vinod Kambli to score the biggest stand for any wicket in any form of cricket. Both were then way beyond completing their teens.
Since, then a place in Indian team was reserved for him. As soon as he was ready for it, the Indian Cricket Board did themselves a favor by offering him a place in the team. Playing with the greats, with his debut against arch-rivals Pakistan in 1989, Little Master left an imprint of the bright future World Cricket was to have in the coming decades.
The Passage of Two Decades
Two decades have passed. Many fast bowlers came and bowed to him. Many batting greats appeared like overshadowing him, yet the God of Cricket kept singing his song. The rhythem appeared off-balance when he was handed over the captaincy of team. Everyone started writing his biography, considering it was time for him to retire.
Ultimately, the phase passed and even after a decade since that turbulent phase, he is the leading batsmen of this era too. In fact, in 2010 he was adjudged the best batsman of the year. Surprisingly for the first time in his 20-year old international career.
Best Batsman of The Year Award
The award signified that Cricket is still his passion, and Cricket World will witness more record breaking from the little master. Interestingly he is always debated as the best batsmen Cricket World ever had, alongside Don Bradman. The debate may go on, as in Soccer it is tough to decide who is the best-ever soccer player – Pele or Maradona.
Batting and Bowling Performances
Besides batting, he was also considered a good bowler, in fact a spinner who can bowl all types of spin even on flat tracks. It yielded him 154 wickets too in ODIs that includes two 5-wicket haul.
Sachin holds almost all the records related with batting. In fact, now he breaks his own records with every additional match. Besides being the greatest batsmen, and a good bowler, he also hass 135 catches against his name.
Captaincy – The Only Glitch
Captaincy and T20 have not given him much of a chance to be discussed. While he just played 1 T20 inning, his captaincy almost put a brake on his performance. Good sense prevailed and he decided to get rid of the extra burden.
Overall Record
World Cup: First match in 1992
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Man of the Matches: 8 (2 in 1992 and 1996, 1 in 1999, 3 in 2003)
Player of the Tournament: World Cup 2003
Batting
41 innings of 42 matches, scored 2122 runs with an average of 57.35. With a Strike Rate of 89.80, he holds all the batting record in World Cup. He has scored 6 centuries, 13 half-centuries.
Bowling
23 innings of 42 matches for 8 wickets. His best being 2/28.
Catches: 11
4s: 221
6s: 27
Test Matches: Debut against Pakistan at Karachi in Nov, 1989
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Batting
290 innings of 177 Test matches, scored 14692 runs with an average of 56.94. It includes 51 centuries, 59 half-centuries with 248* being the highest score.
Bowling
In 135 innings, he has taken 45 wickets with 3/10 being his best performance.
Catches: 106
6s: 64
ODIs: Debut against Pakistan at Gujranwala in Dec, 1989
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Batting
In 439 innings of 450 matches, he has scored 17955 runs with an average of 45.11 scoring 48 centuries and 93 half-centuries. He is the only player to have scored 200* in ODI.
Bowling
In 267 innings of 450 matches he has taken 154 wickets scalping 5-wickets twice in an inning. 5/32 is his best performance.
Catches: 135
6s: 193
4s: 1961
T20s
In 1 match he played, he scored 10 runs with 2 boundaries, took a catch and got one wicket in 2.3 overs. 1/12 was his spell. He played the match in December 2006 against South Africa at Johannesburg. (India won the match by 6 wickets)
*The profile records are updated before India vs Australia quarterfinal match of World Cup 2011
well documented artcl, wth intrstn facts!