As Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar celebrated his 51st birthday on Wednesday, April 24, veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik recalled his one good and bad memory with the legendary batter. In a video uploaded by his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Karthik revealed the first instance of seeing Tendulkar in person, labelling the incident as a good memory. However, the 38-year-old revealed that denying Tendulkar his century in a match was the worst memory he has with the ‘Master Blaster’.
Karthik recalled how he hit a boundary to win the game for India, leaving Tendulkar stranded on 96. He revealed that he still gets flak for doing the same to this date.
“Well, I can give you good memory, bad memory. Good memory being the fact that the first time I met him, it was on top of a flyover. We were going in a bus en route to the airport and he joined in his car and just got into the bus midway. That’s the first time I ever seen the man in my life. So that is a good memory,” Karthik said in a video posted by RCB.
“Bad memory was 97, not out. We needed four runs to win and I hit a six. So, I ended up making sure that he didn’t get the hundred, Till today, I get a lot of grief for it and rightly so. Understandable,” Karthik furter recalled.
Happy Birthday Sachin Tendulkar!
RCB cricketers wish Sachin on his birthday and share their favourite memories with one of India’s finest cricketing icons, on @bigbasket_com presents Bold Diaries! #PlayBold #RCB @sachin_rt pic.twitter.com/6R7aMzis4n
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) April 24, 2024
For the unversed, Karthik is talking about the third T20I against Sri Lanka at Cuttack in 2009. Chasing 239 to win, Tendulkar and Karthik stitiched an unbeaten 74 runs for the fourth wicket and took India home with 7.3 overs to spare.
However, it wasn’t Karthik who denied Tendulkar his century. Instead, Lasith Malinga bowled a delivery down the leg side of Karthik and the ball went for five extras, resulting in the conclusion of the match.
RCB captain Faf du Plessis also opened up on his first meeting with Tendulkar.
“I remember the first memory playing for South Africa against India was just, wow. When you walk in, you saw Sachin batting there for the first time because it was someone that I looked up to as a young kid and always admired his consistency. I think that for me was the biggest thing that always stood out. But seeing him for the first time and for such a small guy to have such a huge presence was a thing that stood out for me that first time I played against him,” Faf said in the same video.
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