MCA scorer impressed by Tendulkar’s T20 ton

Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) scorer Uday Gharat has kept score for matches featuring Sachin Tendulkar since 1989

MCA scorer impressed by Tendulkar's T20 ton

Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) scorer Uday Gharat has kept score for matches featuring Sachin Tendulkar since 1989. Gharat always felt that Tendulkar's maiden first-class double hundred (against the visiting Australians at the Brabourne Stadium in 1998) was his best knock on Mumbai soil. On Friday, he had to rank the Little Master's maiden T20 ton off 66 balls for Mumbai Indians which went in vain against Kochi Tuskers on Friday, as the best.

"This is the best knock from Sachin that I have seen since I started scoring. To score a century in T20 cricket at 38 is marvelous. Young cricketers should take a cue from him," said an ecstatic Gharat, who was the scorer at the Wankhede Stadium press box on Friday. Gharat was ticking away in the scorebook when Tendulkar scored his maiden Test ton at the same venue against Sri Lanka in 1998. "I can't believe Mumbai Indians lost despite such a great innings," said Gharat.u00a0 The scorer recalled Tendulkar asking him the number of balls he faced in certain innings over the years. "Other players want to know about the number of runs or details of fours and sixes, but Sachin is different," said Gharat.

On Friday, Tendulkar made up for that disappointment in a small way before Mumbai Indians were victims of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene's blades.

Gharat rued the fact that he could not see Tendulkar race away from 90 to 100 in the last over. "I was busy trying to fix a problem with my laptop hence could only manage a few glimpses of his batting towards the end of the innings," said Gharat, a scorer for more than 20 years.

"I always knew that he would become a great cricketer, especially after watching him put on a world record partnership of 664 runs with Vinod Kambli while playing for Shardashram High School," he said.

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