Celebrating Sachin Tendulkar’s maiden Test century, scored against England at Old Trafford, Manchester, on this day in 1990; mid-day’s iconic headline revisited
Sachin Tendulkar during his maiden Test century against England at Old Trafford, Manchester, on August 14, 1990. PIC/GETTY IMAGES
It’s been more than a week since India stunned England to win the Oval Test and square the inaugural Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2-2, but the euphoria isn’t showing signs of dying down. Cricket is in the air, and enthusiasts of the willow game still want to talk about the heroics of Mohammed Siraj & Co. An epic series, great performances produce such a scenario. Siraj’s knock-out punch that castled Gus Atkinson’s furniture for India to win by six runs will be long remembered. So should his nine wickets in the game. When the history of India vs England contests is brought up, his name won’t languish at the bottom.
Another sterling show that will rank high in India-England Tests will be Sachin Tendulkar’s maiden hundred at Old Trafford in 1990, whose 35th anniversary is celebrated today. The match-saving hundred, carved in the backdrop of India being on the wrong side of the odds, made Tendulkar the youngest Test centurion for India at 17 years, 112 days. Then, only Pakistan’s Mushtaq Mohammad (17 years, 82 days) was younger to join the Test century club. It was only a matter of time that Tendulkar would perch himself on top of this particular India honours board. He missed getting there by 12 runs earlier in the year at Napier against the New Zealanders. The challenge was greater at Old Trafford, on the last day of a Test match. Graham Gooch’s team added another 30 runs to their overnight score of 290-4 before declaring at 320-4 to set India a 408-run target. India were reeling at 109-4 when Tendulkar walked into battle to join his captain Mohammed Azharuddin. At 10, he would have been out caught and bowled by Eddie Hemmings. It was a firm hit and the off-spinner made a mention of it in his book, Coming of Age. “Tendulkar,” Hemmings wrote, “danced down the wicket and smashed a return catch to my right which I failed to hold on to, and thereafter he did not offer another chance. But with the power he had put into the shot, I thought I had shown pretty sharp reactions even to get a hand to the ball.” Tendulkar saw Kapil Dev depart to Hemmings and was joined by the gritty Manoj Prabhakar. David Frith in Wisden Cricket Monthly wrote that the teenaged batsman “was watchful but never found wanting when the inaccurate ball came his way.” A Chris Lewis over saw three boundaries from Tendulkar’s blade, strikes that helped him reach his second fifty of the match. Lewis returned to the pavilion for a change of boots after Tendulkar smashed him for two boundaries on the off-side. Tendulkar grew in confidence with every stroke and Angus Fraser too got his share of stick as the No. 6 thrived in the 90s. An off-drive off the Middlesex pacer (who in later years watched many a Tendulkar innings from his seat in the press box), got Tendulkar his maiden Test century. Tendulkar (119 not out) with some help from Prabhakar (67 not out), had driven his country to a safe zone with a century for the poets.
Harsha Bhogle was not on air then. His words appeared in mid-day under a sub-editor-scripted headline, Sachincredible: “His [Tendulkar] teammates appeared on the balcony and as Tendulkar took his helmet off, one realised once again that the steely eyes had a strictly adolescent look behind them after all. There was no flailing of arms, no punching of fists, just a little smile and a raising of the bat.”
England, cock-a-hoop after the Lord’s Test win, were denied. Captain Gooch had no hesitation in saying that Tendulkar batted like an old pro. Future captain Mike Atherton, who became only the second Lancastrian to score a hundred on home soil in the Test, had no qualms in admitting in his autobiography that Tendulkar outshone all the other individual performances in the match (centuries from Gooch, Robin Smith, Allan Lamb and 179 from Azharuddin).
R Mohan of The Hindu and The Sportstar went to the extent of saying that the previous four days of the Test were forgotten, “as a tiny batsman attained greatness” and how “this was Tendulkar’s Test as much as Lord’s has been [triple centurion] Gooch’s.”
In the Old Trafford dressing room, the atmosphere was far from light. “It was a tense draw after being thrashed at Lord’s. The atmosphere was very tense. At the same time, it was such a delight to see Sachin play those back-foot punches,” recalled Tendulkar’s teammate WV Raman.
The age factor was too massive to ignore for the media while dwelling on Tendulkar’s unbeaten 119 (189 balls, 225 mins, 17x4). Frith didn’t miss out: “Too young to vote. Too young to drink. Not too young to bat on in his country’s cause.” Richie Benaud witnessed Tendulkar’s Manchester brilliance too. While touching upon his memorable experiences as a commentator, Benaud wrote in Over But Not Out: “The pleasure of commentating on outstanding players comes also with batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, whom I saw make his first Test century at Old Trafford in 1990.” Did Benaud, one of cricket’s most enduring observers, imagine in 1990 that he would live to see Tendulkar score 50 more Test hundreds? Probably not. As for us, Tendulkar’s first of his 51 was incredible all the same.
mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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