On this day, Sachin Tendulkar played his first ODI, got out on a duck in his debut match; But then a new era began

Sachin Tendulkar ODI debut, 18 December 1989 cricket history: Exactly 36 years ago, on 18 December 1989, Indian cricket witnessed a moment whose significance perhaps no one understood at that time. The second match of the four-match ODI series was being played between India and its arch-rival Pakistan in Gujranwala, Pakistan. In this match, a 16 year old thin boy took the field for the first time in ODI cricket wearing an Indian jersey, his name was- Sachin Tendulkar,

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Sachin had made his debut in international cricket just a month before in the Karachi Test, but his first ODI match was not the same as his career later on.

Low scoring match, rain changed the game

India’s tour of Pakistan that year consisted of four Test and four ODI matches. The Test series was drawn 0-0, while the first ODI in Pishawar was abandoned without a single ball being bowled. In such a situation, the second ODI played at Municipal Stadium, Gujranwala on 18th December was special for both the teams.

indian captain Krishnamachari Srikanth won the toss and decided to bowl first. In this match, India gave ODI debut to Sachin Tendulkar as well as Salil Ankola and Vivek Razdan.

Pakistan’s innings: 87 runs in 16 overs

Indian bowlers put pressure on Pakistan from the very beginning. Spinner Maninder Singh dismissed Rameez Raja and Salim Malik early to reduce Pakistan to 22/2. After this, there were two runouts – Wasim Akram and Mansoor Akhtar… and Pakistan’s innings faltered.

Due to rain the match was limited to 16 overs per team. The entire Pakistan team could score only 87/9 runs in 16 overs. In this difficult situation, only Saeed Anwar stood firm, who came at number 5 and scored unbeaten 42 runs in 32 balls, which included 2 sixes and 4 fours. For India, Maninder Singh took 2 wickets for 17 runs, Salil Ankola took 2 wickets for 26 runs and Raman Lamba took 1 wicket for 9 runs. There were a total of 4 runouts in Pakistan’s innings.

India’s run chase and Sachin’s ODI debut

Chasing the small target of 88 runs, India had a steady start. The openers added 26 runs, but after that there was a flurry of wickets. Captain Srikanth became the victim of Waqar Younis after scoring 17 runs. After this Navjot Singh Sidhu and Raman Lamba (10) also quickly returned to the pavilion. Meanwhile, 16 year old Sachin Tendulkar came to bat for the first time in ODI… He came to bat at number 5, but he also faced Waqar Younis, who dismissed him for zero in just two balls. Sachin was caught by Wasim Akram. India’s score was 36/4 and the match started slipping out of hand.

Team India lost by 7 runs

Like Pakistan, India also kept losing wickets continuously. Mohammad Azharuddin could score the maximum 21 runs for India. Only four Indian batsmen could cross the double figures. The entire Indian team could score only 80/9 runs in 16 overs and lost the match by 7 runs. With this victory, Pakistan took a 1-0 lead in the series, which it later converted into a 2-0 series win. The third ODI was inconclusive due to rain.

Better start in Test, lackluster entry in ODI

Sachin Tendulkar started his career in Test cricket and played all four Tests on that tour against Pakistan… In six innings he scored 215 runs, averaging 35.83 and scored two half-centuries. His first Test fifty came in Faisalabad, while the second came in Sialkot… However, in ODI, this was his only match of that series – one match was cancelled, one was inconclusive and in the rest India did not get a chance to bat.

From duck to history: Sachin’s ODI journey

Although his ODI career started from scratch, Sachin Tendulkar later created cricket history. He played 463 ODI matches in his career and scored 18,426 runs. During this period he scored 49 centuries and 96 half-centuries. His ODI career lasted 22 years and 91 days. Apart from this, he holds many records like most runs in a calendar year (1894), most centuries in a year (9), most 50+ scores (145) and fastest time to reach 15,000 to 18,000 runs…

interesting fact

The ODI matches of this series were fixed for 40 overs per team, but Sachin’s debut match was reduced to 16-16 overs due to rain. In that era, the number of ODI overs was not fixed – matches of 40, 50, 55 or 60 overs were also played. The format of 50 overs per innings was adopted permanently only after the 1987 World Cup.

What seemed like an ordinary, rather disappointing debut on 18 December 1989, later became the greatest ODI story in cricket history. This first ODI of Sachin Tendulkar may not have been a memorable performance, but this was the beginning of the journey that made him the God of Cricket.