There is no denying the fact that Sachin Tendulkar’s destiny with the bat against the Pakistan cricket team is nothing less than history and it is an integral part of his career in the game.
Consequently the matches against Pakistan were doubly important because, thanks to the circumstances , India and Pakistan were at loggerheads and clearly, some of the best innings of Sachin Tendulkar were against Pakistan in all the formats of the game.
One of those unforgettable knocks was played on the 16th of March 2004 in Rawalpindi as he scored 141 runs against Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razak.
The Master blaster scored his hundred in just 106 balls including a single off Shoaib Akhtar on the second ball of the 30th over of the Indian innings.
He made a hundred in the process smashing 13 fours and thus became the first Indian to score against Pakistan at ODI.
He also completed fifteen thousand runs in international one-day cricket and needless to say, he was the first batsman to get that milestone as well during the course of his innings.
Chasing down a stiff target of 330 runs, Sachin Tendulkar scored 141 runs from 135 balls with 17 fours and 1 six in a tenacious effort, the highest individual score by an Indian in the match. The next highest run-scorer for India in that match was Rahul Dravid who could only score 36.
In the 39th over, Tendulkar was caught at the knee by Abdul Razzaq off a Shoaib Malik delivery as India lost the match by 12 runs and Pakistan leveled the five match series to 1-1.
Sachin made his international debut at the age of 16 when he play his first International Test against Pakistan way back in 1989. He exhibited great determination against a bowling attack which included the likes of Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Abdul Qadir, and Wasim Akram (who was making his debut as well) which showed that he was a great player in the making.
In his career, every contest that involves Pakistan is crucial for Tendulkar, but he is exceptional in such high-pressure games, which is one of the reasons he is regarded as one of the greatest players in cricket.
The skirmishes between players like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younus, and Shoaib Akhtar on one side of border and Sachin Tendulkar on the other, have a glorious chapter recorded in the memory of cricket fans on both sides of the border.
