With the Master turning forty-six on Wednesday, 24 April, simply over a month removed from cricket’s flagship match, we forged our minds lower back to his five best Cricket World Cup performances.
Tendulkar is the competition’s all-time main run-scorer, with 2,278 runs over six variations. His tally includes six masses and culminated in India lifting the World Cup after 28 years, in 2011 at home. A fluid and mesmeric stroke-maker, countrywide icon, and fierce competitor, Tendulkar’s exploits at the most suitable tournament have left behind a few indelible moments.
India crashed out after defeating Sri Lanka inside the semi-final on domestic soil. However, it turned into the year that saw Tendulkar’s World Cup legacy start to take form. Averaging 87. Sixteen, with heaps and three 1/2-centuries, at instances it felt like a 22-yr-vintage Tendulkar become sporting his side via the tournament, and on no event did this appear more apparent than when India took on a celebrity-studded Australia facet within the institution stage.
In pursuit of 259 at his domestic ground in Mumbai, Tendulkar collected stylishly and unexpectedly to the pleasure of his adoring supporters, negotiating the likes of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath with unerring ease. He amassed 90 earlier than being stumped, and his elder, more pro-crew-buddies could not pick out up from where he left off. India lost by sixteen runs. However, it provided oppositions an ominous glimpse of the grasp’s abilities with the bat and displayed an early yearning for massive-game knocks that carried on for tournaments to come.
Tendulkar’s knock against Kenya in 1999 can’t be overstated in terms of importance or poignancy and showcased the sheer stage of elite batsmanship on the show that day in Bristol. Firstly, India has been in want of victory to hold their tournament alive, after early losses to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and Tendulkar’s own involvement become not guaranteed, given his father had tragically surpassed away only a few days earlier.
He described this time as the ‘maximum difficult level of my existence,’ yet displayed admirable stoicism and pleasure as he dismantled the Kenyan attack for a one hundred and one-ball a hundred and forty*, setting his aspect up for a secure victory. Tendulkar’s emotional nod to his father upon attaining three figures, six over mid-wicket, captured tens of millions of hearts. Daring drives, paddle-sweeps and all, Tendulkar displayed his superb technical acumen and capacity to assault, as he took the level on a sobering day for himself and India and left a mark on it with his cricketing brilliance.
Despite dropping agonizingly within the final to Australia, Tendulkar turned into the big name of the 2003 World Cup, scoring 673 runs at a median of sixty-one. 18 – nevertheless, the largest run-haul for a batsman on the tournament. Nothing epitomized Tendulkar’s rich vein of shape greater than his match-winning knock towards Pakistan in a salivating group stage encounter, offering probably international-beating sides.
Chasing 274, Tendulkar smashed 12 fours and a six as he fell simply quick of what could have been a devastating century, his 98 coming from just seventy-five balls. Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Shahid Afridi probed to no avail, and they have been swatted to all parts via the master, who in the end departed inside the 28th over, having all but secured victory for India. “I got more than one ball to hit, they went well off the bat, and things started occurring,” he later stated, and it is that kind of relentless momentum that continually separated Tendulkar from his friends.
120 v England, 2011, Bengaluru
Tendulkar’s World Cup swan-music became not described by way of specific innings, so to speak. However, it nevertheless saw a number of his most potent and accountable innings. In a collection stage conflict towards England, he hit a hundred and fifteen-ball 120 from the top of the order, one in every of two centuries for his campaign’s duration. Interestingly, neither resulted in victories for his side.
Lighting up Bengaluru, Tendulkar crunched five sixes along 10 fours before departing in the 39th over, having carved out a terrific platform for the lower-order hitters. In a gripping affair, England matched India’s 338 to tie the sport, Andrew Strauss’ super 158 hauling the traveling aspect to parity.
85 v Pakistan, 2011, Chandigarh
Despite six triple-determine rankings in World Cups, many of Tendulkar’s maximum important knocks fell short of the century mark and regularly came in cagey, decrease-scoring affairs. A win for India in 2011 gave Tendulkar the only missing trophy in an astounding cupboard, and it becomes his important eighty-five in Chandigarh towards Pakistan inside the semi-very last that took India one step closer to that second.
On a tacky surface in Chandigarh, Tendulkar fought valiantly to protect his wicket as those around him floundered. The next great rating came from his establishing partner Virender Sehwag (38), as India ground their way to 260/9. It became out to be enough as Pakistan did not dig in, and the vintage-timer, in his penultimate World Cup suit, showed his guile and reveled in. India, buoyed using the win, overcame Sri Lanka with the aid of six wickets in the final, securing the name on domestic turf.
