Sachin Tendulkar's ODI centuries (No.21 to No.26)
Fondly called the God of Cricket, he was the first player to score 200 in ODI.At an age when most of his friends pondered about Class X results, Sachin Tendulkar was thinking about the dealing with players almost twice his age. Class - exuberance - resilient - compose - adept and the list of adjectives describing Tendulkar is limitless.
Such was the stature of the batsman who left no stones unturned in his distinct and long career. However, in the last 1990s, the Tendulkar witnesses by the cricketing fraternity was utterly terrifying.
Long before the inception of T20 cricket, Tendulkar knew who to threaten the bowlers with extreme aggression and capitalize on their weaknesses. The man feared none and in the ODIs he was simply next to being unstoppable.
During the second half of the 1990s, Tendulkar slammed a flabbergasting 34 centuries. Amongst these, a massive 20 of them came in the then shortest format of the game - ODI.
Let's take a look at Tendulkar's century #21 to #26:
#1 ODI Century number 21 - 13th November 1998, Sharjah v/s Zimbabwe (124*)
In what had already transpired to be an exciting and glamorous series, the final of the Coco-Cola Champions Trophy took place in Sharjah and Zimbabwe having lost the toss were put into bat first.
Zimbabwe was bundled out for just 196 and India needed 197 for the series triumph. Out walked Tendulkar and Ganguly with the latter happy to play the spectator's role once Tendulkar got going.
Tendulkar smashed an unbeaten 124 comprising of 12 fours and 4 sixes and en route the Zimbabwe bowlers were demolished to the ground. India romped home by 10 wickets and Tendulkar picked up the Man of the Match award as well.
This inning has managed to go deep into the memories of Indian fans for the swashbuckling batting style by Tendulkar.