On this day in 1994, Sachin Tendulkar, a batsman who had captured imaginations like no one else, scored his first century for India against Sri Lanka.
A day-night game in Colombo, Tendulkar came out to bat alongside Manoj Prabhakar. At 6/0, a length ball on his pads from Craig McDermott and Tendulkar lifted it for a beautiful six over the deep-mid-wicket fence.
Tendulkar had 17 half-centuries before that day, which included some crucial knocks like the 52 against Pakistan at Sharjah in 1992, but that three-figure mark in Colombo eluded the master batsman.
If a six off his pads against McDermott augured well for India, consecutive sixes in Shane Warne’s over confirmed that this could perhaps be his day.
At 98*, a loosener from Warne just outside Tendulkar’s off-stump, allowed him to cut the ball for two. And there it was – the first ODI century for Sachin Tendulkar.
What happened after this memorable day in Sri Lanka was like a tale scripted in the heavens for Tendulkar. A young boy from the maidans of Mumbai, went on to become the finest batsman of his generation.
In the 385 matches that he played after the Australian game, Tendulkar scored 16,300 runs which included 48 centuries and 78 half-centuries. He annihilated every opposition, in every country that he faced them in.
When he finally bowed out of world cricket in 2013, he was considered one of the greatest players of the game.
Exactly 22 years after that balmy afternoon in Colombo, a blue-jersey clad Tendulkar’s demolition of bowlers is still fresh in everyone’s minds.
