On this day.. In that year! Remembering Sachin Tendulkar's 100th century!

News Bharati    16-Mar-2020 18:44:33 PM
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-Anjali Ankad 
 
It was March 16, 2012. India was playing against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup tournament. On whose side will the victory prevail was not the concern. The main focus was on the God of cricket. Something unusual, unimaginable and unpredictable was going to happen which the whole cricket world including the crowd at the stadium, the cricket fans watching on the television and the players would witness in this match. Sachin Tendulkar was going to add another feather in his cap. He was on the verge of scripting history.

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Sachin had surpassed 50 and 75 and went in 90's. His hundred was going to come up. It was not just a century but his 100th international century which has been not achieved any player to date. Sachin had 99 centuries stamped under his name before this match including 51 in Tests and 48 in ODIs. It was going to be a big feat to achieve at the international level especially when it seems impossible.
 
But it was a worrisome situation for the 46-year-old batsman because the last century he scored was on 20 March 2011 against South Africa in the World Cup means exactly one year and 4 days ago. It was the longest time he had waited to create another century. He had lost two opportunities to register a 100 when he entered into 90's. He had missed twice to score centuries when all the anticipation and butterflies in the stomach ran in the cricket fans. However, he could not cross the line in those innings. Would he be able to break the jinx here?
All the anticipation and butterflies in the stomach came back when the opener crossed 95. Finally, he was on 99 and got back the strike. He scored a single clipped to square leg. He had done it! He had become the one and the only player to score the 100th century in cricket history. Whole stadium erupted with celebrations!
 
The right-hander, who celebrated this milestone mildly, was immediately congratulated by the Bangladesh players. He took time to acknowledge cheers from the crowd. Both the fans, Indians and Bangladeshi were applauding for such a huge achievement. It was his first hundred against Bangladesh in ODIs. In addition to that, he scored 14 runs before edging a Mashrafe Mortaza delivery to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim. He finished with 114 from 147 balls with 12 fours and 1 six.

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He had said, after the match, it was not important for him to score the 100th century but to contribute more for the team. "A year ago when I got my 99th hundred no-one spoke about it during the World Cup, then I guess it was the media who began talking about it. Wherever I went, to a restaurant, the housekeeping, the room service, whoever I met just spoke about the 100th hundred. It became a little difficult mentally because I am not playing only for my 100th hundred. The 99 hundred that I scored, nobody spoke about them. Everyone had their opinion but eventually, I have got to do what is important for the team."

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It is not everybody's cup of tea to be the highest run scorer of all time in International cricket including 51 tons in test and 49 tons in ODI. Be it 10,000 ODI runs, 50 Test Tons, 20 ODI hundreds, 12,000 Test runs or an ODI 200, he was the first one to get it. Now, he has almost scored more than 30,000 runs at the international level and it is even hard to calculate how many runs he has scored.
 
He bid farewell to the cricket in 2013 when he managed to score 74 in his test match. After 8 years, we still remember this day when he climbed up the scale of 100th 100. After him, is the former Australian Ricky Pointing with 71 tons in his kit and the active Indian skipper Virat Kohli (70*) who can possibly break this record, nevertheless, it will not easy.