Sachin Tendulkar's 241 at SCG his most disciplined Test innings, attests Brian Lara
Brian Lara has opined that Sachin Tendulkar's 241 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, refusing to play a shot through cover, was the most disciplined innings of his career. It was the last-ever Test match of Steve Waugh's career and India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a draw.
Throughout the Australian tour of 2004-05, Sachin Tendulkar suffered a slide in the form that Indians were not too accustomed to and he was genuinely finding it hard to touch a ball. In the first two Tests, the Indian No.4 had managed scores like 1, 37, 0 and 44 and had been dismissed on a number of occasions driving at wide balls outside his off stump. For starters, those deliveries were the easiest to play for him throughout his career.
With Australia packing the off-side with seven fielders, Tendulkar brought his unflinching determination to the fore and didn't try too hard to score runs on the offside. He shouldered arms to almost every delivery Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee bowled to him and went on to score a double century. It remained forever etched in the memory and Brian Lara, his great competitor during his era, recalled the innings as the most disciplined innings of the Mumbaikar's Test career.
"Can you imagine playing Test cricket at the age of 16 until the next 24 years. That is just unbelievable. Sachin has played some amazing innings throughout his career but none with more discipline and determination like his 241* against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)," Lara said in an Instagram post.
In the 241-run innings, Tendulkar hit 33 boundaries at the SCG, but quite incredibly not a single one of those fours was hit through the covers.
“I had got out a couple of times to balls bowled outside the off stump. So I decided not to play the cover-drive. They were bowling consistently outside the off stump, and I decided to leave all those balls. Then they had to bowl to me and I used the pace of the ball. I would put this innings right at the top of my hundreds. I had a plan and I am happy I could execute it well. I am happy that I was able to maintain the discipline throughout the innings. Things had gone wrong a couple of times with my shot selection, and I knew I had to cut out a few strokes," Tendulkar had later explained.
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