India batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was among a very few batsmen who managed to dominate legendary Australia spinner Shane Warne in his heydays.
Tendulkar played a number of remarkable knocks against Australia featuring Shane Warne in the attack during the 1990s and early 2000s. No wonder, Warne has often termed Sachin as the toughest batsman to bowl to.
Recently, former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee shared his two cents on the iconic rivalry.
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“Sachin Tendulkar was toying with Warne and that does not happen often,” Lee said on Star Sport’s show Cricket Connected.
“He used to advance down the wicket a few times and invited Warne to bowl a fraction too short. Sometimes, he would wait patiently on the back foot and play those beautiful shots. It was almost like he was playing cat and mouse with Warne and not many batsmen can play cat and mouse with Shane Warne because he’s so talented,” he added.
Warne had tested Tendulkar with all his variations, but the Master Blaster almost always managed to read his deliveries and came out on top.
“The way Sachin used to read bowlers out of their hand, the different technique he used to play different balls was pure class,” Lee said. “There were times when Warne would try and get the trajectory a bit different through the air and sometimes, he would try and get a few balls to drop. Every time he would try the subtle variations, there was only Sachin who would pick them up.”
“Warne would bamboozle other batsmen around the world, but Sachin would watch the hand much better than most of the other batsmen. Warne hated it, he would come back and say that he tried everything to get Sachin out, but he couldn’t,” he continued.
Brett Lee also recounted fond memories of his own battles with Tendulkar, especially cherishing those occasions when he got rid of the batting genius.
“I was 22 years when I got my first opportunity to play against the Little Master. I nicked him off and I thought I’m done. I didn’t care about a Test match since I was so happy to get Sachin Tendulkar out,” he concluded.
In a career spanning 24 years, Sachin Tendulkar played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs for his country, scoring the world record number of runs (15921 in Tests and 18426 in ODIs) and centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs). He also holds the record for most runs, centuries, fifties in ICC Cricket World Cup and is the most capped player in Tests and ODIs.
