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OTD In 1990: A 17-Year-Old Tendulkar Played Like A Man Among Men To Rescue India

Soumyajit Dutta

Sachin Tendulkar [Source: @BCCI/X.com]Sachin Tendulkar [Source: @BCCI/X.com]

The summer of 1990. A 17-year-old boy, slight of frame but immense in talent, walked onto the hallowed turf of Old Trafford, Manchester. India was bruised. Humiliated by a 247-run thrashing at Lord's, they now faced a mountain. England's mammoth first innings was of 519 runs. 

The pressure was suffocating, the opposition formidable, the raw pace of Devon Malcolm, the nagging accuracy of Angus Fraser, the guile of Eddie Hemmings. For young Sachin Tendulkar, his modest scores of 10 and 27 in his first Test on English soil were mere footnotes. Manchester was where the legend truly began.

Tendulkar Came To India's Rescue

India stumbled, conceding a hefty 87-run lead. Forced to bat last, the task was Herculean. It was to survive or chase 408 for an improbable win. When Kapil Dev fell with the score a precarious 183/6, defeat loomed large, threatening to plunge India into a 0-2 series abyss. 

Out walked Tendulkar, batting at No. 6. Little did the orld know that they are going to witness the initiation of a man who will be called the 'God' of cricket after a decade. 

Tendulkar's Ton Was A Statement Of Arrival!

Tendulkar walks back after match saving knock [Source: @dynamo_881/X.com]Tendulkar walks back after match saving knock [Source: @dynamo_881/X.com]

Facing the relentless English attack not as a boy, but as a peerless batter, Tendulkar crafted a masterpiece. His 119 not out, carved from 189 deliveries and adorned with 17 crisp boundaries, was an exhibition of technique, temperament, and sheer will. 

Crucially, he found an ally in Manoj Prabhakar (67), their defiant 160-run stand for the seventh wicket steering India from the brink of collapse to the safe harbour of a draw. The teenager, unfazed by the occasion or the attack, had played the innings of a seasoned veteran. 

His maiden Test century was the resonant arrival of a genius. That knock in Manchester, under immense pressure, against a top attack, on foreign soil, announced Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, not just as a prodigy, but as a force who would dominate the game for the next quarter-century. It was the moment the boy wonder transformed, irrevocably, into the Master Blaster.