The Superman from India - a century of centuries!!!

16 March 2012.

India playing hosts Bangladesh in an Asia Cup game at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Fourth ball of the 44^th over, Shakib Al Hasan’s harmless leg stump dart was turned to deep square leg by Sachin Tendulkar. Renting Paul Allot’s words from St. Johns 2004 (Brian Lara’s 400^th run), “Perhaps the most significant single in the history of the game” - that is perfectly apt, if not more, here. 24 international matches; 34 innings; 370 days; from Nagpur to Mirpur - it took this long for a nation’s prayer to come true and the magical hundredth hundred to arrive. Sunil Gavaskar who was doing the commentary that time said,”We are all very very lucky, very very fortunate to be able to watch this moment, not even sure whether we will ever see a moment like this in the game again”. That summed up the historical significance of the moment. In this edition of the blog I give an insight into Sachin’s 100 hundreds and how the rest of India and the world fared comparison to him.

Sachin’s milestone hundreds

1^st century - 119* (189 balls, 225 mins, 17 X 4) Test vs Eng, 2^nd inngs, Old Trafford, 9-14 Aug 1990

10^th century - 105 (134 balls, 180 mins, 10 X 4) ODI vs WI, Jaipur, 11 Nov 1994

25^th century - 139 (266 balls, 397 mins, 16 X 4) Test vs SL, 1^st inngs, Colombo (SSC), 9-13 Aug 1997

50^th century - 201* (281 balls, 392 mins, 27 X 4) Test vs Zimb, 1^st inngs, Nagpur, 25-29 Nov 2000

75^th century - 141* (148 balls, 13 X 4, 5 X 6) ODI vs WI, Kuala Lampur, 14 Sep 2006

99^th century – 111 (101 balls, 184 mins, 8 X 4, 3 X 6) ODI vs SA, Nagpur, 12 Mar 2011

100^th century - 114 (147 balls, 205 mins, 12 X 4, 1 X 6) ODI vs Bang, Mirpur, 16 Mar 2012

The first of many - 119* vs Eng, Old Trafford, 1990

Sachin’s 100 – split up

Split up	Span	Age	Time	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	50
1-25	1989-1997	24 y 111 d	7 y 268 d	209	233	9330	44.21	179	51
26-50	1997-2000	27 y 213 d	3 y 107 d	128	143	6698	51.52	217	22
51-75	2000-2006	33 y 143 d	5 y 292 d	159	190	8730	51.96	248*	40
76-100	2006-2012	38 y 327 d	5 y 183 d	156	198	9237	51.03	214	47
Post 100	2012-2013	40 y 206 d	1 y 245 d	13	19	503	27.64	81	4
Overall	1989-2013	40 y 206 d	24 y 1 d	664	782	34357	55.58	248*	164

  

TABLE I: Centuries 1 – 25 (1989-1997)

	Players	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
Sachin		209	233	9330	44.21	179	25	51
India	57	213	1928	44517	28.21	227	53	232
ROW	588	880	19344	453390	28.10	375	561	2330

Sachin took 21 innings for his first test century & 76 innings for his first 3-figure score in ODIs but once he got there, he just got on the top gear. In next 86 ODI innings he scored 12 more 100s. During this time period his main contemporaries were Brian Lara and Mark Waugh, both scoring 21 hundreds each during the same time.  With a cut-off of 100 runs, only Lara (49.91), Martin Crowe (45.22) and Michael Bevan (44.75) averaged more in this period than Sachin. Mohd. Azharuddin (14 10s @ 41.95) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (10 100s @ 40.71) were the next placed Indians in the list of centuries. It was a time when Sachin grew from a teenage prodigy to the centre stone of Indian batting line-up while Dravid, Ganguly & Laxman still taking their baby steps in cricket.

TABLE II: Centuries 25 – 50 (1997-2000)

	Players	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
Sachin		128	143	6698	51.52	217	25	22
India	54	155	1359	31597	28.54	217	50	152
ROW	469	575	12498	287963	27.50	334*	368	1443

Sachin scored over 1900 international runs in 7 consecutive years from 1996 to 2002. So it was no surprise that he took a mere 143 innings to go from 25 to 50 centuries i.e. a century almost every half a dozen innings. He scored 12 international 100s in the year 1998 – the record for most in any calendar year by any player. He also scored his maiden test double century in this period – 217 vs NZ at Motera. Sachin had an amazing conversion rate also during this period – 25 of his 47 score above 50 were converted to centuries. His ODI opening partner Ganguly came in second place during this period with 19 hundreds followed by 13 each from Saed Anwar and Rahul Dravid. His biggest nemesis Lara scored just 6 hundreds in the same period at a mediocre average of 36.37. The gulf between Tendulkar and the rest started growing in this period and no one caught him from here on.

The Desert Storm in 1998 - Sachin on his way to a century on his 24th birthday against Aus at Sharjah

TABLE III: Centuries 50 - 75 (2000-2006)

	Players	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
Sachin		159	190	8730	51.96	248*	25	40
India	65	235	2320	60132	31.46	309	92	301
ROW	751	1064	23737	589005	29.60	400*	894	2862

Sachin needed 5 years & 292 days to complete the next quartet of his hundred centuries. But during this time he was way off the top with a distant joint fourth with Kallis and Gibbs. Ponting (38), Hayden (30) were ahead of him but the surprise package was Marcus Trescothick with 26 hundreds though he played 59 more innings than Sachin during the same period.

TABLE IV: Centuries 75-100 (2006-2012)

	Players	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
Sachin		156	198	9237	51.03	214	25	47
India	59	274	2657	69792	32.04	319	106	387
ROW	904	1296	26340	619574	28.34	333	812	3097

Sachin took 198 innings to get the magical figure of 100 hundreds but it was the “last straw that broke the camel’s back”. From 99^th to 100^th hundred he took more than a year & 34 innings. However in the same period he was dismissed in the nervous nineties for 11 times (excluding a 96 not out), 7 of which came in the year 2007. Sachin’s last century in a win came against Australia at Bangalore in 2010 - his 95^th. A whole nation prayed for their God to reach the coveted land mark which no one else has yet scaled and finally he achieved it against Bangladesh at Mirpur on 16 March 2012. It was his slowest ODI century and it came off 138 balls in what was his penultimate ODI. 

TABLE V: Overall (1989 – 2013)

	Players	Matches	Inngs	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
Sachin		664	782	34357	48.52	248*	100	164
India	154	936	9548	220829	30.89	319	332	1135
ROW	1868	4157	88866	2111402	28.50	400*	2863	10489

# The stats for India & Rest of the World (ROW) excludes Sachin’s contribution while ROW includes contribution of Indian players other than Sachin.

# Eng - Pak test at Faislabad bw 29 Nov to 03 Dec 2000 is counted in Table III.

# SA - NZ test at Hamilton from 15-17 Mar 2012 is also included in Table IV.

 

The final frontier - 100th 100 vs Bang, Mirpur, 2012

  

Other interesting facts regarding Sachin’s 100 centuries

# Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to score a century on all 5 possible results – a win (53); a loss (25); a draw (20); a tie (1) & a no result (1).

# Sachin is the first player to score a double century in ODIs – 200* vs SA, Gwalior, 2010.

# At 17 years & 107 days, Sachin scored his maiden test century against England at Old Trafford. He is the 3^rd youngest to score a test century.

# Sachin is the youngest to score a test century in England (17 y & 107 d); Australia (18 y 253 d) & in SA (19 y & 26 d).

# Sachin has scored the most centuries in World Cup games (6).

# Sachin has hit 6 centuries in tournament finals whereas no one else has more than 3.

TAILENDER

It seemed as if no one would overtake the Master Blaster’s tally of 49 ODI hundreds until a kid named Virat Kohli came to the Indian blocks. Below we see a comparison of innings taken by both the Master and his pupil for scoring ODI hundreds.

Century  #	Sachin	Kohli
1	76	13
2	81	17
3	87	32
4	93	33
5	100	43
6	103	61
7	108	63
8	111	68
9	117	79
10	131	80
11	137	82
12	145	83
13	175	86
14	181	103
15	182	106
16	185	110
17	189	112
18	193	119
19	194	124