Twenty20, often pigeonholed into the young man’s domain of fearless hearts and fresh legs, has proved that it has space for classical cricketers irrespective of lines on their faces and that rare tinge of grey in their hair. Tendulkar strode into cricket’s global heart in 1989, but the passion is still fresh and the urge to dominate is ever-strong.
His maiden hundred in Twenty20 came in the IPL on home-turf as the Wankhede Stadium reverberated on a Friday night (April 15, 2011). An unbeaten 100 against Kochi Tuskers Kerala was however destined to embrace tragedy as Mumbai Indians failed to cope with the brilliance of Brendon McCullum and rival captain Mahela Jayawardene. There was however much to cheer in Tendulkar’s ton, especially the helicopter shot that he unveiled. Dhoni must be feeling flattered.
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At the other end of the spectrum, men like Jacques Kallis (Knight Riders) and Rahul Dravid (Rajasthan Royals) excelled for their respective teams to prove that men of stature will find their own ways to sparkle even in a terrain, supposedly alien to them.
With Tendulkar bringing up his hundred in just 66 balls, Mumbai Indians posted a mammoth 182-2. Put in to bat, the home side had a decent start as Davy Jacobs and Tendulkar built a 61-run partnership for the first wicket. In the ninth over, Jacobs departed, scoring 12 runs.
Ambati Rayudu joined in and added 116 runs for the second wicket. While the Hyderabad batsman played a swashbuckling knock of 53 off 33 balls, Tendulkar held fort. He looked calm and composed and ensured that there was no slip-up.
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He brought up 45 runs from the last five over, and proved that he perfectly fits into the shorter format as well. With the icon leading the way, things looked pretty sorted for Mumbai Indians.
However, Kochi Tuskers batsmen -- McCullum and Jayawardene -- had other plans. They provided a solid start to Kochi, putting an opening partnership of 128 runs, which eventually paved the way for the side’s eight-wicket win.
In his IPL career, Tendulkar amassed 2,334 runs at an average of 34.83, including 13 half-centuries and a ton. He was the highest scorer in the 2010 IPL edition. But for the cricketing fraternity, it was a moment of joy as the Master Blaster hammered his first-ever ton in the franchise-based league. Even though Kochi Tuskers cliched the game, the evening belonged to Tendulkar!
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