Reliving Sachin Tendulkar's Test hundreds: Centuries 11-15

Sachin Tendulkar is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest players to have played cricket. The Master Blaster, as he is famously called, has innumerable records to his name including that of being the only batsman to have scored 100 international centuries in the history of the game.

Also Read: Reliving Sachin Tendulkar's Test hundreds - Centuries 6-10

In a career that spanned over 24 glorious years, Tendulkar played numerous memorable knocks. As a part of this epic saga of reliving all of his brilliant Test centuries, let us take a look at centuries 11-15 of the batting maestro in the premier format of the game.

#5: 11th Century - 169 against South Africa at Cape Town, 1997

Trailing South by 0-1 in the three-match Test series on the South African Tour in 1997, India entered the second Test at Cape Town desperate for a win. South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first on a pitch that had plenty of runs on offer. The Proteas posted a daunting 529 in their first innings and set a huge task ahead of the Indians.

After coming out to bat, India were rocked by successive wickets. While Tendulkar looked in sublime touch at one end, other batsmen had no clue on how to negotiate the South African quicks. The visitors were soon found reeling at 58-5 before he was joined by Mohammed Azharuddin at the crease.

Tendulkar, who looked determined to play a captain's knock, impressed one and all with some exquisite stroke play. The Mumbaikar ended up scoring 169 runs that included 26 boundaries. His 254-ball knock consisted of copybook straight drives, stunning cover drives, skillful cuts and pulls. In fact, former South African cricketer Ali Bacher described this knock as of the greatest of all time. The match was also graced by the presence of Nelson Mandela.

India, however, couldn't manage to put up a fight in the second innings and lost by a huge margin of 282 runs.