5 shots that showed Sachin Tendulkar's greatness

# On-drive off Shoaib Akhtar

Sachin during the game against Pakistan

The flick to the leg-side mentioned in the previous slide was bound to transfix the gaze of a true connoisseur. But the best was yet to come. The next ball was also the last of the over. Having been taken for 10 runs of the previous two deliveries, Shoaib must have been seeking some sort of revenge.

But what he instead got was, possibly, the best shot of the innings. It was an on-drive which seemed like a defensive push but which was timed so brilliantly that the ball raced past the mid-on fielder and reached the boundary to rub further salt into the wounds of the opposition.

What made the shot outrageous was the fact that the ball wasn’t on a driving length at all. It was just back-of-a-length and delivered at a thundering speed of 154/kph. Tendulkar wasn’t on the front foot either - as he usually is while playing drives down the ground. Yet, he tapped the ball with ease and scored the third consecutive boundary of the over to deflate the Pakistanis.

Such a brilliant on-drive may not have been since in international cricket. Next time you enjoy this innings, don’t just drool over the uppercut but also savour these masterful strokes that only a genius like Tendulkar could produce.

(Watch from 4:08 in the video)