Born on April 24, 1973, Sachin Tendulkar celebrates his 40th birthday today. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the maestro’s genius on his birthdays over the years on the field of play.
It comes as a surprise that Sachin Tendulkar has played only four cricket matches on his birthdays (three, if you discard IPL) in the 24 years since he made his international debut in 1989.
Here is the complete list of Tendulkar’s batting performances on his birthdays:
April 24, 1991: Bombay vs Hyderabad, Ranji Trophy semi-final, Bombay
Tendulkar’s first match on his birthday turned out to be an anticlimax: he spent almost the entire day with his pads on. After Lalchand Rajput and Shishir Hattangadi were dismissed early by Rajesh Yadav, Dilip Vengsarkar joined his captain Sanjay Manjrekar with the score on 30 for two. Tendulkar waited at the dressing-room for almost the entire day as stumps were called at Vengsarkar’s wicket with Bombay on 323.
Tendulkar scored a quick-fire 70 the next morning, Vinod Kambli accumulated 126, and Manjrekar was finally dismissed for a marathon 377. Bombay declared at 855 for six, and after Hyderabad were bowled out for 498, Manjrekar decided to bat on, turning the entire match into a farce. Tendulkar scored a ferocious 71-ball 88 in the second innings with eight fours and five sixes. He also bowled 14 overs in the match for 74 runs.
April 24, 1997: University of West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s XI vs Indians, West Indies tour, Port-of-Spain
The University of West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s XI was a strong outfit, including nine West Indian internationals along with Mark Boucher and Makhaya Ntini. India reached 274 for six in their stipulated 50 overs, thanks to a 150-run opening partnership between Sourav Ganguly and Navjot Sidhu, and some late-order blasts from Ajay Jadeja and the captain Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 36 from 23 balls.
The University of West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s XI collapsed to 242 from 227 for three as Sunil Joshi ran through them with figures of four for 36.
April 24, 1998: India vs Australia, Coca-Cola Cup, Sharjah
Tendulkar had played an almost impossible innings (usually referred as the ‘sandstorm innings’ in the annals of the sport) in India’s last league match to take India to the tournament final. Now, in the final, Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bowl on Tendulkar’s 25th birthday. Australia scored 272 for nine, thanks to Steve Waugh (70) and Darren Lehmann’s (70) brilliant strokeplay.
In India’s chase, Tendulkar blasted away to a 131-ball 134 with 12 fours and three sixes, and the match was as good as won by the time he was given out leg-before to a Michael Kasprowicz, delivery that was clearly missing the off-stump.
India cruised to victory, and Tendulkar was awarded the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series award.
April 24, 2011: Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Chargers, Indian Premier League, Hyderabad,
The last cricket match that Tendulkar played on his birthday was in IPL 2011. After Tendulkar blasted away to a 24-ball 28, Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds helped the Indians reach 172 for four. The Chargers could manage only 135 for eight, not being able to counter Lasith Malinga’s 4-0-9-3.
Tendulkar, thus, has a 100% undefeated record on his birthday. Will he be able to keep his record intact in this year’s match — his 40th birthday — against the Kolkata Knight Riders?
