Flashback- Ind vs SA, 2000 : When Sachin Tendulkar's best was not quite good enough

[Gunner_Mania]

In one of his finest articles, Sports Illustrated's Frank Deford wrote: "I've always wondered how people in olden times connected back to their childhoods. After all, we have hooks with the past. When most of us from the 20th century reminisce about growing up, we right away remember the songs and the athletes of any particular moment. Right?" When the many who were teenagers in India at the turn of the millennium look back at February 2000, what will they remember? Some might recall Kaho Na...Pyaar Hai blaring out through a million speakers, while the more Anglo-centric will remember humming along to Santana's Smooth. There will also be at least a few whose minds go back to the Wankhede Stadium and one of Sachin Tendulkar's finest innings. Memories of the actual game may be hazy now, especially given the devastation caused by the match-fixing scandal that followed, but South Africa's tour of 2000 represented a real nadir in Indian cricket history. Imran Khan's Pakistanis had been the last touring team to win a series in India [1987], in the pre-satellite-TV-pre-Tendulkar era, and Hansie Cronje's side weren't expected to change that statistic despite the awesome new-ball duo of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock. When Tendulkar arrived at the crease to the usual raucous acclaim, India were 39 for 2. When he departed 208 minutes later, the scoreboard showed 173 for 8. On a pitch that had even been given the wire-brush treatment after the extermination of any traces of grass, other batsmen struggled to work the ball off the square. He made 97 from 163 balls. When he then chipped in with 3 for 10 to give India a 49-run lead, it seemed as though the gamble on a Russian-roulette pitch had been worth it. More...

The thing though is back then Tendulkar was a one man team and we hardly ever had decent opening wicket stands. Indi'as batting line up has become much stronger while South Africa's spin bowling and ability to bat against spin still remain poor.

[achilles]

The first thing which came to my mind when I read the title was - Sachin Tendulkar's 175 vs Australia in Hyderabad, 2009