5 shots that showed Sachin Tendulkar's greatness

# Flick through square-leg off Shoaib Akhtar

Sachin Tendulkar of India runs between the wickets

If this was a list of most memorable strokes played by Sachin, the upper-cut by him against Shoaib Akhtar in a group game of the 2003 World Cup would be top of the list. But we are looking at strokes of the highest quality and not necessarily of most dramatic value.

Hence, the shot to remember is not the upper-cut, which was and still is played by many other batsmen with as much ease as Tendulkar. The real gems in that innings were two shots that came immediately after the uppercut, in fact, off the next two deliveries.

On the next ball, Shoaib Akhtar decided not to use the standard fast bowler’s reply to a boundary – a bouncer – but instead, target Sachin’s pads. This delivery clocked a speed of 151.9/kph and pitched on a somewhat full-ish length. Tendulkar didn’t come too far forward and clipped the ball from around the off stump to send it racing towards the square-leg boundary. It was a typical Tendulkar flick with the bat being turned over the top of the ball to keep it along the ground.

If he had missed this delivery, Sachin would have been in serious danger of getting LBW. But when the great man was in top form, nothing could stop him. The shot was executed so flawlessly and with such precise timing that the Pakistanis could only watch in dismay.

(Watch the shot from 6:45 in the video)