Tendulkar vs McGrath: The only bowler who could tame the ‘God of Cricket’

Over 34,000 international runs, a century of centuries, more than 660 Indian caps and more than 260 fifty-plus scores – Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s resume can intimidate the best bowlers, former and present. However, in his 24-year-old career, going by specific instances, there has been only one bowler who has managed to tame the ‘God of Cricket’ – Australian speedster Glenn McGrath.

For the first time, McGrath dismissed Tendulkar for a duck in the 1999 World Cup Super Six game. Four years later, the Aussie, who played for 14 years himself, managers to get the Master Blaster going for four runs in the 2003 final.

Remember the shoulder before wicket incident? Sachin Tendulkar was facing McGrath, who bowled a short delivery that didn’t bounce at all. Assuming that the ball would bounce over his head, Tendulkar ducked. But the ball hit his shoulders, which were right in front of the wickets. The Indian legend was given out.

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Recalling the incident McGrath said,” Sachin was batting and I think he had still not scored many runs or was still on zero, having just come in. I bowled him a bouncer and Sachin is not the tallest guy going around.”

The bouncer will generally bounce and clear him quite easily, but that day when it bounced, it kept low and he ducked it and it hit him on his shoulder. And because he is not very tall, when he ducked it… from where I could see, I could see the bails over the top and it was hitting the middle stumps. So, I appealed and the umpire gave him out and he was not happy. So he walks off. Is it LBW? Probably, it should have been SBW or Shoulder Before Wicket,” he added.

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McGrath, who is also called the Piegeon was able to tame the Prince too. Even Brain Lara struggled to get past the Australian bowlers clever spells.

McGrath dismissed Tendulkar 13 times in international cricket 6 times in Tests and on seven occasions on ODIs.

However, there is one incident when the batsman came on top of McGrath. During an ICC Champions Trophy match in Nairobi, 2000, Sachin smacked the Aussie pacer for three sixes and two boundaries early into the innings. Tendulkar’s fast-paced 38 gave India the early impetus in the match