Ian Gould told me he was afraid to give Sachin out on 190, jokes Dale Steyn

On February 24, 2010, the city of Gwalior was witness to one of the greatest knocks played in ODI history, with the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar scripting history, becoming the first man to breach the ‘200’ barrier in ODI cricket. And at the receiving end of Sachin’s masterclass was a strong South African side that had a potent bowling attack in the form of Dale Steyn, Charl Langvedlt, Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe. 

Recalling the Little Master’s masterclass in a Sky Sports Podcast with Jimmy Anderson, Nasser Hussain and Rob Key, Steyn revealed how he was sure that he’d trapped Sachin plumb in front when the Indian was in his 190s, only to be outrightly denied by umpire Ian Gould. According to Steyn, Gould told him that ‘he wouldn’t make it back to the hotel’ had he given Sachin out, jokingly citing it as the reason for not ruling the Master Blaster out.

“He did score a lot of runs against us. He scored the first double-hundred in ODI cricket, and it was against us in Gwalior. And I actually remember – I think I got him out lbw when he was about 190-odd. Gouldy [Ian Gould] was the umpire, and he gave him not out,” Steyn said in the podcast, reported Wisden.

“And I was like, ‘why, why did you give him not out!? That’s so dead.’ And he was like, ‘mate, look around – if I gave him out, I won’t make it back to the hotel’”.

Having found himself at the forefront of many a battle against Sachin, Steyn was full of praise for the Little Master and went on to recall how intimidating and harrowing it was to bowl against the Master Blaster in Mumbai, where the crowds would lose their mind if he hit a boundary. The 36-year-old pacer stated that the only way of getting Sachin out was to put the ball in the right areas and ‘hope’ that he nicks or misjudges one.

“He was so good, and very rarely got out lbw. And, like Jimmy said, you just didn’t want to bowl a bad ball to him. Especially in a place like India. You bowl a bad bowl, and he hits you four – he’s on nought and he hits you for four in Mumbai, it feels like the world is closing in on you. He’s only on 4 not out, he may as well have been on 500,” Steyn said of Sachin.

“You feel like, ‘maybe I could bring the pace down a little bit and really focus on getting the ball in the right place for as long as I possibly can’. You just didn’t want to bowl a bad ball. And you just hope. He’s got it covered, he’s got everyone shot in the book – you just hope one will do something off the seam or he’s got an off day, and it goes in your favour.”