VIDEO | Relive Sachin Tendulkar’s “Desert Storm” that floored Australia, on this day, in 1998
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There may be 100s of them, but if one century that had established an endearing legacy of Sachin Tendulkar in the minds of cricket fans, it was his “Desert Storm” innings against Australia in Sharjah. That magnificent unbeaten 143 in 1998 has etched in cricket's history as a timeless classic.
ODI cricket has undergone a lot of metamorphosis since then, with one modification after another being continually superimposed on it. India has changed rapidly as well and Virat Kohli has almost decided to break Sachin’s record for fun to establish a legacy of his own. However, even after 20 years, the lustre of that knock has remained undiminished and can still put fears of god into the Australians’ mind.
The Master Blaster was at the height of his powers during the 90s - basically when he started opening the batting in 1994 and the early years of the turn of the new millennium. During that period, India became almost a one-man army with Tendulkar being the hope of the billions. That was when Tendulkar was at his absolute best and dare I say, in ODIs, he actually had no peer. On 22nd April, exactly 20 years to this day, Tendulkar came up with perhaps his best one-day international knock to help India enter the finals of the Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah.
The tournament was entirely dominated by the Aussies and it was the sixth match of the tri-nation tournament and India were fighting hard to go past New Zealand to get into the finals. India
While wickets kept falling at one end, Tendulkar stood tall and then started showing what he was capable of as he hammered Shane Warne and company to all parts of the park. Sharjah had always been a happy hunting ground for the Mumbaikar and that day the Aussies understood in a hard way.
Tendulkar brought the entire coaching manual to his game on that day and drove, pulled, cut and flicked with elan which culminated with Tony Greig's immortal lines - “Sayyyysshinn Tendulkar. Whaddddaplaya, what a wonderful playa!”
India won the game comfortably to book a place in the final all thanks to one man, who went on to become the best that ODI cricket has ever seen.
Relive the moments here.
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