Mumbai: The legendary Sachin Tendulkar, on Wednesday said that the Ranji Trophy semi-final match between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu is his most memorable one in the championship.
At a celebratory function on the eve of Mumbai’s 500th Ranji Trophy match against Baroda beginning on Thursday, the icon while answering a question said, “I will say it was the 1999-2000 semi-final against Tamil Nadu.”
He said that Mumbai had surpassed Tamil Nadu’s first innings score of 485 in that match, with him along with last man Santosh Saxena at the crease. Tendulkar had scored a scintillating 233 n.o as Mumbai scored 490 in the first innings and went on to win the encounter by eight wickets at the end.
He also said that the ball started to reverse once the umpires changed it. Speaking at the Mumbai CA’s Sharad Pawar academy at the Bandra-Kurla complex, he recalled, “I started to stand outside the crease and Hemang Badani will tell the bowler from point in Tamil that I was standing outside. I then went back into the crease when the bowler started his run up. After the match I told Badani that I understand Tamil.”
The scorer of hundred international hundreds also said that Mumbai’s success percentage in the Ranji Trophy was 47 per cent.
“If I say it’s unbelievable it’s an understatement,” the batting legend said.
Also present at the occasion were former cricketers like Ajit Wadekar, Madhav Apte, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sudhir Naik, Sanjay Manjrekar and Amol Muzumdar, who spoke about Mumbai’s domination in the Ranji Trophy.