Merely a few hours before his country was going to celebrate its Independence Day, a young and unassuming guy from India, named Sachin Tendulkar scored his first international century.
I mention Independence Day because he achieved the feat at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in and against England.
That was the first time the world sat up and took notice of the beauty Sachin’s game was.
It was also the first of the ‘century of centuries’.
In next 23 years, he would go on to score 100 international tons; something that wasn’t done before and couldn’t be repeated after (till now, at least).
It was the year 1990 and India was playing its second Test against England.
Having won the toss, England elected to bat and scored 519 runs in the first innings. In reply, India scored 432- thanks to captain Mohammed Azharuddin’s century- but fell short by 87 runs.
In the second innings, England declared at 320, giving India 408 runs to chase. This seemed like an uphill task as the side lost 5 wickets in succession and was struggling at 127/5 at one point.
This is when Tendulkar rose to the occasion and saved India from a possible defeat.