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| Sachin Tendulkar's charismatic innings after which the fans called him the 'god of cricket' |
Former Indian cricket team batsman and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar will turn 50 on April 24.
Two days before his birthday on 22 April 1998, Tendulkar was 25 when he played a brilliant inning between India and Australia at the Sharjah Stadium.
The impact of this inning can be understood from the fact that many critics and cricket fans started calling Sachin the 'God of Cricket' after this inning.
After 25 years, Sachin Tendulkar remembered his innings and he also cut a cake on the 25th anniversary of this innings on Saturday.
Sachin was accompanied by many of his fans.
The cake featured a picture of Sachin's innings played in Sharjah on 22 April 1998. This inning is also known as Desert Storm.
"I was five feet five inches and scared."
Whether Team India would reach the final of the Coca-Cola Cup or not was to be decided by the match against Australia.
Steve Waugh won the toss and elected to bat first. Thanks to Michael Bevan's unbeaten 101 and Mark Waugh's brilliant 81, Australia scored 284 runs in 50 overs.
India needed to score 254 runs to reach the final, only then the team could surpass New Zealand in terms of net run rate.
Sachin was in the role of the team's opener. India lost four wickets in 29 overs and the team score was 138 runs. Then the dust storm started. Sachin was standing on the wicket.
Sachin wrote about the storm in his autobiography Playing It My Way, "I have never seen a mud storm in my life. The wind was blowing from one end of the earth to the other. I was five feet five inches. I was scared. A storm can blow me away. So I went and stood behind Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist to catch him if he started flying.
'Sachin's sixes kept scaring me even in my dreams
However, this storm had no effect on Tendulkar's spirit. When play resumed after the storm subsided, India needed 276 runs in 46 overs to win and 237 to qualify for the final. That means at least 100 runs had to be scored in 17 overs.
Sachin alone was enough. As soon as he came, he hit the Australian bowler Tom Moody for a six.
He scored 143 runs off 131 balls. With 9 fours and 5 sixes. In this innings, Tendulkar could not win against the team India but the team managed to make it to the final.
Because of his innings, people forgot about the sand storm and started remembering this match as Sachin's storm.
Sachin's innings shocked Australian fast bowler Michael Kasprochs, Damien Fleming couldn't believe it and Shane Warne later said that Sachin's sixes scared him even in his dreams.
If Sachin Tendulkar had not been dismissed by Damien Fleming in the 43rd over, he would have looked in a position to win the match as well.
'Our team lost to Sachin Tendulkar'
On the ball on which he was declared out, all the analysts including Sachin were considering it a no-ball.
Fans have not forgotten their innings of Sachin even after 25 years. Along with this, people also remember the voice of Tony Greig commentating on the match on TV.
However, Sachin made up for this innings deficit in the final played two days later on 24 April.
He scored 134 runs in 131 balls with the help of 12 fours and three sixes in the final. Due to his century, India won the Coca-Cola Cup.
Later in the press conference, Australian captain Steve Waugh also said his team lost to Sachin Tendulkar.
Sachin scored 100 international centuries throughout his career but when it comes to his special centuries, his two centuries scored in two consecutive matches in Sharjah come to mind first.