City lauds his load of tons

BANGALORE: In eight Test matches and 10 ODIs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Sachin Tendulkar has hammered one century and a double century in Tests and two hundreds in the limited overs version of the game. So his legion of fans have been lucky enough to have witnessed four of those 100 hundreds being compiled in the City where the batting maestro played his first ODI in 1993 against England and his first Test in 1994 against the Sri Lankans.Incidentally, Sachin who scored his 100th International hundred against Bangladesh, also has his highest Test score of 248 not out against the same Asian nation. Tendulkar might not have had to wait this long for this accomplishment had he not missed centuries very narrowly at the Chinnaswamy Stadium itself.In his very first Test here in 1994 against the Lankans, Sachin fell short of a hundred by a mere four runs. He was out for 90 against South Africa in 2000. Sachin’s first century in the Garden City was struck against New Zealand when he made, as usual, a brilliant 177 runs in the first innings but was out for 31 runs in the second. His second such knock came only in 2010 when he went on to hammer a splendid 214 against the Australians in his first knock and was unbeaten with 51 in the second innings. Sachin’s first ODI hundred was against the Australians in 1996 when he produced a typically aggressive 117 and then struck a purple patch in the World Cup in 2011 as he made England pay with a blistering 120. He wasn’t successful in the next game against Ireland and that was would possibly be the last time his fans in the City have seen him in action in an ODI if he decides to retire from the limited overs version. The nearest he came to scoring another ODI hundred was when he made 88 against Australia in 1996 and 89 against the baggy greens in 2003 here. His last Test was in 2010 against Australia. The possibility of him playing in Tests too look rather remote as he widely expected to call it a day after having completed his much-awaited 100th hundred. With the IPL V season set to start in April, Sachin will be leading the Mumbai Indians in the T20 tournament and his fans will surely swarm the venue what with Sachin surely on the verge of an impending retirement. There was never a dull moment with Sachin at the wicket and the Garden City applauds as much as any other city where he has scored a hundred in both varieties of the game.