Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar is celebrating his 50th birthday today (24 April). Sachin Tendulkar had made big bowlers sweat with the bat, while there was no answer to his bowling. Sachin Tendulkar wanted to become a fast bowler but after the advice of Dennis Lillee, he concentrated on batting.
Sachin Tendulkar had bowled such a bouncer ball in a match which broke the batsman’s nose. This incident happened on 20 April 1991 during a Ranji match between Delhi and Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar’s ball was so dangerous that Bantu Singh suffered multiple fractures in his nose and started bleeding. Bantu was the pillar of Delhi’s batting in the 1980s and 90s.
I have a new nose: Bantu Singh
Recalling that incident 32 years ago, Bantu Singh says, ‘The map of my nose has changed, after that Tendulkar bouncer, now I have a new nose. Bantu told, ‘We had tried to prepare a grassy pitch in Kotla, on which the ball would bounce but later it became a paradise for the batsmen. Our fast bowlers Sanjeev Sharma and Atul Wassan bowled a few bouncers to Dilip Vengsarkar, playing his last season. I remember that on at least two occasions, Dilip bhai was hit on the chest by Atul’s bouncers and the sparring started.’
He said, ‘I got this injury in the second innings. I scored a century in the first innings and just as a formality in the second innings I hit a boundary against Tendulkar but his next ball bounced off the grass and came towards me, I played a pull shot and the ball took the edge of the bat and hit my nose. Got it The injury was so severe that I lost my balance, Manjrekar ran to me from the slips and saved me from falling. Both mine and Manjrekar’s shorts were red with blood.
Sachin had called to know the condition
Bantu Singh was taken to Sanjeevan Hospital just behind Kotla and it was found that he had multiple fractures in his nose, which required surgery. He had to be on a liquid diet for at least two months. Bantu, however, has still not forgotten Tendulkar’s humanity. He said, ‘The Mumbai team had left the same evening after the match was over, it was around 11 in the night that our landline phone rang and my father picked up. Tendulkar was on the other side. I don’t know how they found my phone number. They asked my father how I am. What is the doctor saying? Later whenever we used to meet, he used to ask ‘Naak thik hai na tera’.
Delhi had to lose that match
In that period, the rivalry between Mumbai and Delhi was at its peak and there was a close fight between the two teams. Delhi’s team lost the match in that quarter-final due to being behind in the first innings and had to be out of the title race. Delhi scored 389 runs in the first innings in reply to Mumbai’s 390 runs. In the second innings, Mumbai scored huge scores with the help of centuries by Sanjay Manjrekar, Tendulkar and Chandrakant Pandit.
Sachin Tendulkar scored a record 34 thousand 357 runs in 664 international matches. During this, 100 centuries and 164 half-centuries came out of Sachin’s bat. Sachin Tendulkar also took 201 wickets in his name while showing amazing in bowling. In the year 2013, after the Test match held at Wankhede against West Indies, he had announced to put an end to his illustrious career.
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