On a couple of balmy nights in Sharjah in 1998 Sachin Tendulkar carved out successive scintillating centuries against Australia to convince the men in gold who weren't believers,u00a0he was the best batsman in the world.

More than a decade later Tendulkar has converted a whole new set of Australian non- believers with a mercurial ODI century in Hyderabad. That's actually not quite true; Ricky Ponting was in attendance in Sharjah and for him Tendulkar just re-confirmed his great skill and tenacity.