7 moments from Sachin Tendulkar’s career that don’t fade away

3) Winning it for Mumbai

A poised Sachin Tendulkar during a Ranji Trophy match at the Wankhede in Mumbai

When gunmen launched a fidayeen attack on Tendulkar’s home city on the night of 26 November 2008, the Indian team was en route to yet another win in the ongoing India – England one-day series. No sooner had the ODI at Cuttack ended, the news broke that Mumbai had fallen prey to a terror attack.

For nearly 70 hours, drama unfolded in India’s commercial capital, as key instalments were taken hostage. The remaining one-dayers were called off, the inaugural edition of the Champions League T20 was in doubt and the English players were returning home with a cloud hanging over the future of the scheduled Test series between the two sides.

A few weeks later, under a solemn setting, the first Test in Chennai got underway much due to the magnanimity of the English players.

An authoritative hundred from Andrew Strauss in the first innings and incisive spells from Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar in India’s first innings saw the home team concede a lead of over 60 runs to the opposition. When England came out to bat in the third innings of the match – Strauss hit his second ton of the match and Paul Collingwood made an identical score, taking India’s target to an improbable 387 with a little more than a day left in the game.

Virender Sehwag’s 68-ball 83 and a strong foundation of 117 runs for the first wicket in just 22 overs set the launch pad for India’s historic win. Coming in to bat at 141/2 with 246 runs still to go, the Master put on 42 and 41 run partnerships with Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman respectively before sealing the game with a 163-run partnership with Yuvraj Singh.

The most iconic moment in the match came when India was still four runs away from the target and Tendulkar was batting on 99.

Off the third delivery of the 99th over of the game, Tendulkar paddled Graeme Swann around the corner as the ball raced away to the fine leg boundary for a four. Tendulkar raised his hands up in the air only to be embraced by Yuvraj Singh – India had sealed a historic win. Later on, Tendulkar admitted that he wasn’t aware that he had also brought up his 41st Test century; such was the joy of winning the game.

That game, however, will always be remembered for the backdrop it was played under, and for Tendulkar’s gesture of dedicating his century to Mumbai.