Only few bowlers made the great Sachin Tendulkar devise special plans to counter them and Shane Warne was one of them. Before Tendulkar appeared in Warne’s dreams, the former had to practice for hours to negate the spin wizard’s turn. To counter Warne’s ploy to bowl round the wicket, Tendulkar worked hard and played inside out shots which made Warne’s life hard whenever India took on Australia.
In 1998-99, Warne was at the peak of his powers and Tendulkar looked like a man on a mission. Warne gave birth to the famous rivalry in 1998 when he got Tendulkar out for a single-digit score. But the smiles on Australian players’ faces was soon wiped off as Tendulkar smashed a century in the second innings of the same match in Chennai.
The iconic Sharjah series is still fresh in the memories of cricket fans for the ‘Desert Storm’ knock. The Master Blaster absolutely decimated Australian bowling attack including Warne to help India qualify for the final first and then to win the tournament.
It used to be a full house whenever the two legends met whether it is on international stage, IPL or years later in Cricket All Stars series. There was a constant battle between the two. Tendulkar did not always dominate him as the leg-spinner dismissed him on four occasions. As Tendulkar mentioned in his tribute, there was never a dull moment when he was around.
While one finished as second-highest wicket-taker (708 wickets) in Test cricket, the other hanged his boots as the all-time highest run-scorer in two formats.
Tendulkar and Warne were rivals on the field but very good friends off the field. Like most, Tendulkar was shocked by the sudden demise of the Victoria-born cricketer. He tweeted:
Shocked, stunned & miserable…
Will miss you Warnie. There was never a dull moment with you around, on or off the field. Will always treasure our on field duels & off field banter. You always had a special place for India & Indians had a special place for you.
Gone too young!
