Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has named his most meaningful century in his career. Speaking about the same, the former India international went back to 2008, when England toured India for a seven-match ODI series and two Test matches. When the Men in Blue were playing the fifth ODI against England in Cuttack on November 26, a terror attack broke out in Mumbai, which killed over 160 people and more than 300 were left injured.
The sixth and seventh ODIs were eventually called off, and there was significant doubt whether the Three Lions would return for the two Tests that were scheduled. England moved to Dubai after the terror attack, and after spending almost a week there, the players returned to India for the series. Ahead of the five-match series between the two nations, starting June 20, Sachin went on record to thank the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for sending back the England players at that time.
The Test series began on December 11 in Chennai, less than two weeks after the attack ended. In that match, India were on the backfoot after the first innings, as they were trailing by 75 runs. England added 311 more in the second innings, as Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood scored a century each. The match seemed to be out of India’s reach, and that’s when the Indian batters, particularly Sachin, took control and won the game for the hosts.
Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir helped India to start well, scoring 83 and 66 runs respectively. Later, Sachin went on to score a century and remained unbeaten for 103 runs, while Yuvraj Singh made 85*. That partnership eventually won the game for India by six wickets.
We were not in the right frame of mind to play Test cricket: Sachin
17 years later, Sachin revealed that it was the most meaningful century of his career as the situation was extremely delicate at that time. Hailing from Mumbai, where the terror attack took place, the cricketer was moved, but when the going got tough, he rose up to the occasion and won the game for India.
“For the first three and a half days, we were playing a catching-up game and suddenly, we started picking wickets. Zaheer (Khan) started. Zaheer picked up three wickets and just towards the end of the day’s play, (Virender) Sehwag went berserk. He played some incredible shots - on that track, which I felt England had possibly the best bowling attack. It was Jimmy, Harmison, Flintoff, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann,” Sachin said on Sky Sports.
“We got into some good partnerships and then, we finished really strong with Yuvi and I scoring runs. In the post-match when we were sitting in the dressing room, we couldn’t believe, given how the mental state was. Not just the cricket team but the entire nation. It was very, very fragile and we were not in the right frame of mind to play Test cricket. When the match got over, I felt it was the most meaningful hundred of my life,” he added.