Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar had begun his Ranji Trophy campaign in 1988 with an unbeaten 100 against Gujarat. He was just 15 years and 230 days at that time. He finished it off on October 30, 2013 with an unbeaten 79 against Haryana and powered his team to a memorable four-wicket victory on a green turf.
Tendulkar played this match in Lahli so that he can prepare for the upcoming Test series against the West Indies in which he will play his 199th and 200th Tests and bid adieu to cricket forever. However, he never knew that he would get such a fitting farewell by scripting the glory for himself.
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Sachin also paid his dues to Dilip Vengsarkar, who had noticed his talent and gave him an opportunity to play in Ranji Trophy, which led to his ultimate selection into Team India. The only game Sachin played against Haryana was in 1991 when Mumbai lost by two runs even as he made 96. That brought tears to Vengsarkar’s eyes. However, the master turned around things in his last Ranji game to give much-awaited joy to his mentor.
In the first innings, Haryna bowled out for 134. However, Sachin failed to score big in reply. From 100/4, Mumbai collapsed to 136. In the second innings, Haryana declared at 237/9, setting a victory target of 240 for Mumbai. After the departure of top batsmen, Abhishek Nayar helped Sachin by putting on a fifty-run partnership with him. Later, Sachin got support from Dhawan Kulkarni to achieve the target.
Sachin Tendulkar played 38 Ranji Trophy matches. He hit 18 hundreds and 19 fifties. He was out for a duck only once, which came in the Ranji Trophy final against Uttar Pradesh in 2008-09. Bhuvneswhar Kumar was the bowler.
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