On this day, 32 years ago, Sachin Tendulkar scored his first century while playing for India in an international competition.
Many people consider Sachin Tendulkar to be among the best batters who have ever participated in the sport of cricket. He holds almost all of the batting records for both one-day internationals and test matches, and he is still the player with the most runs scored in the history of international cricket. The batsman scored his first century in international cricket 32 years ago, when he faced England at Old Trafford. He went on to score a total of 100 tonnes in his career in international competition. At that point in time, Sachin had only turned 17 years old and 112 days.
When Tendulkar scored his first century for India in international competition, he became the third-youngest player in the history of the game to score a century in the longest version of the game.
The Master Blaster had to play in eight Test matches before he reached the first three-figure mark in international cricket. However, in the Old Trafford Test, he was able to score 119 runs off of just 189 balls in the fourth and final innings of the Test. This was his best performance of the series. What elevated the significance of the knock was the fact that it contributed to the away team securing a draw from the game.
After England won the coin toss for the test match being played at Old Trafford, the home team made the decision to bat first. They went on to score 519 runs in the first innings, after which India was bowled out for only 432, which allowed the home team to take a lead of 87 runs.
After reaching 320 for four in their second innings, England made their declaration, giving India a target score of 408 runs. In the end, Sachin’s hit contributed to the visitors securing a draw out of the game.
Tendulkar, who was born in Mumbai, went on to break a number of records during the course of his career. On November 15, 1989, he had made his first appearance in a cricket test match.
Tendulkar has accumulated 15,921 runs in the longest format of the game, making him the player with the most runs overall. He also has the most centuries (51) of any player. Tendulkar maintains his position at the pinnacle of the list for the most number of runs scored in one-day international cricket as well.
In One-Day Internationals, he scored 18,426 runs, including 49 tonnes. Tendulkar had competed for his country in a total of six World Cups, and he was a member of the Indian team that won the World Cup in 2011.
