Back in August 1990, Sachin Tendulkar announced his arrival to international cricket after scoring his maiden hundred for India. The Master Blaster, who was only 17 years old back then, played a spectacular knock against England in the second Test of the three-match series at Old Trafford in Manchester. Facing the likes of Devon Malcolm, Angus Fraser and Eddie Hemmings did not bother him.

After losing the opening Test by 247 runs at the Lord’s, India found themselves under immense pressure. Tendulkar did not have the best of outings at the Home of Cricket after getting scores of 10 and 27. In the Manchester Test, India again got into trouble as England scored 519 in their first innings after opting to bat first.

Tendulkar came to their rescue this time around. He scored 68 in the first innings, although India ended up conceding a lead of 87 runs. Chasing a mammoth target of 408, India had to put in a special effort to avoid going 0-2 down. Sachin put his hands up in crisis and got to his hundred. Batting at No.6, the then youngster scored 119 runs from 189 balls with the help of 17 fours.

India were staring down the barrel with their score at 183 for six following Kapil Dev’s dismissal. From there on, Sachin and Manoj Prabhakar put on a partnership of 160 runs for the seventh wicket to save the day for the Indian team. He got support from Prabhakar, who made 67 runs off 128 balls with the help of eight fours.

India went on to lose the series 0-1 after the third Test at the Kennington Oval in London also ended in a draw. Tendulkar had a memorable series after he scored 245 runs from five innings at an average of 61.25 and a strike-rate of 55.80.

23 years later in 2013, Sachin became the first cricketer to play 200 Test matches. Even after 11 years following his retirement, he remains the leading run-scorer in Tests.

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