Just a small anecdote of Sachin Tendulkar’s Irani Trophy debut on his birthday:
November 1989, Wankhede Stadium.
5 selectors sat in the stands with notebooks & doubts, watching a 16 year old boy try to force his way onto a plane to Pakistan. Sachin Tendulkar had already shone through the Ranji season, 583 runs showing he was ready. But the men in charge preferred patience. They wanted one more look.
Irani Trophy gave it to them. Rest of India against Delhi. Tendulkar made 39 in first innings. Promising, but not the hundred that would have made selection automatic. So the 2nd innings became an audition he could not afford to fail.
What happened next was less a cricket match & more a rescue mission. Tendulkar walked in at number 4. Scorecard around him read like a horror story. Not a single teammate managed to reach double figures after he arrived (in fact, no one crossed 6 runs). Wickets fell like dominoes. By the time 9th wicket went down, he was stranded in the 80s, the hundred slipping away with every departing batter.
Enter Gursharan Singh. Rest of India vice captain had fractured his finger in first innings, his right hand wrapped in plaster, his match effectively over. Then Raj Singh Dungarpur walked over & told him to pad up. Not to save the game, but to save the boy’s hundred.
Gursharan walked out one handed. Tendulkar, already heading back to the pavilion assuming the injured man would not bat, stopped in his tracks. Gursharan looked at him & said, “Tera hundred kar ke jayenge.”
Tendulkar smiled, took strike & told Gursharan he would handle Maninder Singh himself. They added 36 runs for last wicket & Sachin scored 103*.
A week later, he was on a flight to Karachi. Selectors had seen enough. Sometimes greatness needs a century. Sometimes it needs a teammate with a broken finger willing to stand in the firing line so the story can continue.
A short thread on Sachin Tendulkar, The Master Blaster, on the occasion of his 53rd birthday, consisting some of his accolades and records.
Sachin Tendulkar till date is the youngest test centurion in South Africa, Australia, England. He is also the youngest player to score a test 50 in New Zealand.
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