On this day: Sachin Tendulkar scores his world-record 35th Test century

For many and many years, Sachin Tendulkar made us proud with his cricketing performances and scripted unmatchable numbers. And no wonder, the whopping amount of cricket he played, after a time, he would name a record just by stepping on the field!

10th of December 2005 was another day when Tendulkar added one more feather to his feather-filled cap.  On the same day when he equalled Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 125 Test appearances and on the same ground where Gavaskar matched Don Bradman’s record 29 centuries, Sachin Tendulkar showed some classy woodwork, solid defiance, and controlled aggression to breach the much-anticipated landmark.

India were playing Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla, and with a flick through square-leg off Chaminda Vaas close to the end of that day’s play, he reached his 35th Test century, going past Sunil Gavaskar’s long-standing record of 34 Test centuries. Gavaskar’s record had stood for 22 years after he named himself the highest number of Test centuries in 1983 and scored his last century in December 1986, against Sri Lanka.

#OnThisDay 10/12/2005@sachin_rt Scored 109 vs Srilanka at Delhi

By Smashing This Century, Sachin went Past Gavaskar’s tally of Most Test 100s

– 73rd Century
– 35th Test Century
– 14th Century vs SL
– 7th Test Century vs SL
– 2nd Century In 2005
– 3rd Century at Delhi pic.twitter.com/cRK6QJ32Uc

— ?????? (@Shebas_10dulkar) December 10, 2019

For Tendulkar’s fans, the countdown began as soon as his 33rd hundred, which he scored in April 2004, was scored. It took him nearly one year to go from equaling Sunil Gavaskar to surpassing him as almost exactly a year ago – on December 11, 2004 – he scored his 34th hundred, against Bangladesh, which went on to become an unbeaten 248, his highest Test score. But his elbow injury hindered Sachin’s Test appearances to just six, during which time he managed three half-centuries, but the three-figure mark remained elusive till his knock here at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

As soon as Tendulkar reached his century, which came off 177 balls, and included 13 fours and one six, the play was stopped for bad light, with India being 245 for 3 off 75.4 overs. Tendulkar was not out on an even 100 and had spent 279 minutes at the crease. On the next day, the Master Blaster was dismissed after adding 9 more runs to his tally. Sri Lanka managed 230 runs courtesy of Marvan Atapattu’s 88 and Jayawardene’s 60 in the first innings, in the response to India’s 290.

On the back of Irfan Pathan’s sublime 93-run knock and a lower-order partnership between Yuvraj Singh (77) and MS Dhoni (51) led India to 375 at the loss of 6 wickets, before the call of the declaration was made. Chasing 436 runs, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 247 as Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh bagged 7 wickets between them to hand India a massive win by 188 runs.