On This Day: Sachin Tendulkar Scored his Maiden Century

Sachin Tendulkar's Maiden Test century
Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar First Century: At the young age of 17 years in 1990, playing amongst legends, and against, international cricket witnessed the birth of a cricketing legend.

Sachin Tendulkar First Century

In India’s tour of England in the 1990 Test series, a young lad named Sachin Tendulkar was called up to the Indian national squad for a three-match Test series.

In the first innings of the second Test, Tendulkar, coming in at No.6, scored an impressive 68 in 136 deliveries. Skipper Mohammad Azharuddin scored a sublime 179 in the innings as well. Taking inspiration from the captain, Tendulkar went on to score his maiden Test century, scoring an unbeaten 119 runs.

The second Test between the two sides ended in a draw, but the scores were surely intimidating. England put on 519 & 320/4(d) with Graham Gooch (116), Mike Atherton (131), and Robin Smith (121) scoring centuries in the first innings. Allan Lamb hit a ton in their second innings.

India scored 432 & 343/6 with the help of Azharuddin’s ton (179) in the first innings, followed by Tendulkar’s sublime 119* in the second innings.

Tendulkar thus became the then second youngster after Mushtaq Mohammad to score an international Test century. The innings wasn’t an easy one given the English bowling attack at the time and at one stage India were in a spot of bother at 109/4 after lunch.

Tendulkar then stitched an unbeaten 160-run partnership with Manoj Prabhakar (67*) for the seventh wicket as the contest ended in a draw.

 

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In the three-match series, Tendulkar scored 245 runs in five innings played, finishing the series with an impressive average of 61.25, which included one century and one half-century.

In a career between 1989 and 2013, Tendulkar went on to score 15,921 Test runs in 200 Test matches, which included 51 centuries and six double-centuries. The Indian finished as the format’s most prolific run-getter and century maker.

In ODI cricket too, Tendulkar became a legendary batter. He played 463 matches, scoring 18,426 runs, including 49 centuries and one double-century.