Sachin Tendulkar and I had '50-50' cricketing battles between us, recalls Glenn McGrath

01/27/2020

Australian legend Glenn McGrath has shared that the battles between him and Sachin Tendulkar on the cricket field were always competitive and it ended 50-50 as both had their highs and lows. He also recalled the incident when Sachin was given out LBW when the ball had hit his shoulder while ducking.

Glenn McGrath and Sachin Tendulkar might be great friends off the field, but their rivalries used to be fierce while on the field. Bith of them were champion cricketers and wanted to do well for their country, which took their game to the next level. McGrath recalled one such incident when Sachin Tendulkar got struck on his shoulder while ducking and was given out LBW. Tendulkar was absolutely furious with the decision as he felt the ball was going on to miss the stumps.

"Was it LBW? Probably, it should have been an SBW - Shoulder Before Wicket," McGrath said about the incident that took place at Adelaide in the 1999 Test.

McGrath also spoke about the 2003 World Cup final when he got the little master out in the very first over and broke the heart of millions of Indians. He revealed that many people till date tell him that they haven't forgiven him for taking the wicket of Tendulkar in the final.

"Sachin came for batting and the first three balls, I kept pretty tight and he didn't score any runs. The fourth ball, he went for a pull shot, hit me over to mid-off for four runs. The crowd was cheering and I'm sure people watching the match India must have been pretty happy too," McGrath asserted.

"The next ball was a very similar delivery, just bounced a little more, he went to play that pull shot again but he hit it straight up in the air and it came straight to my hands for a comfortable caught and bowled. I was pretty happy with that, but obviously Indian fans were not happy with that," he added.

McGrath in the end, agreed that both him and Tendulkar have had moments where one was on top of another and thus felt that the contest was evenly matched in the end.

"I got him out a few times and he hit some good hundreds against us. So it was like 50-50 between us," he concluded.