‘The storm was so strong that I decided to forget all about social distancing’: Sachin Tendulkar on his ‘Desert Storm’ experience
Sachin Tendulkar (image source : Twitter)
Sachin Tendulkar was a name that sent chills down the spine of his opponents during his playing time. Even the great Shane Warne spoke of having nightmares about Sachin hitting him. But in a recent conversation, he shared an experience of himself being scared as hell. It was the ‘Desert Storm’ incident at Sharjah in 1998 that sent shivers down his spine.
Speaking of the match, Sachin was dominating the Aussie bowling while they were chasing a target of 285 runs. The Australian side scored 284 runs for the loss of seven wickets on the back of a brilliant century by Michael Bevan (101 of 103) and a 99 ball 81 from Mark Waugh.
While recalling the incident on the Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’, Sachin said – “This was my first ever experience. I had never seen a desert storm like that. When I saw that, the first thought was that I was gonna get blown away by this. Adam Gilchrist was standing right behind me. The storm was so strong that I decided to forget about all social distancing and was ready to hold on to him because if the storm blows me away then at least there will be 80-90 kilos, Adam Gilchrist, with me, so I was thinking literally like that, that’s when the umpires decided to leave the field.”
As the play resumed, India was set a revised target of 276 runs from 46 overs. The men in blue fell short of the target by 26 runs and this disappointed Sachin. He feels that not enough runs were deducted as per the number of overs reduced.
“We went inside the dressing room thinking of the new revised target, what it would be. Eventually, we had 46 overs but if I’m not mistaking only 8-9 runs were deducted from the target so I was quite upset,”- Sachin added.
Sachin scored 143 runs off 131 deliveries in the match before being dismissed by Damien Felming in the 43rd over after which the men in blue failed to reach the target. Tendulkar followed this brilliant performance with another century in the finals in which India won.
