Ex-South Africa cricketer Morne Morkel heaped praises on Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 111 in the Centurion Test in the 2010-11 series.
Sachin Tendulkar has 100 international centuries to his credit, and his twin centuries in South Africa rank as two of the most high-class knocks. The former Proteas pacer Morne Morkel feels Tendulkar’s unbeaten 111 at Centurion was almost a faultless knock.
Tendulkar scored a sublime century in the second innings of the first of the three Tests against Dale Steyn and Morkel, who were both at peak of their powers. Those were very seam-friendly conditions at Centurion, which for years has been a fortress for the Proteas.
Morkel, who had picked seven scalps in the match, recalled the innings and heaped praises on India’s arguably the greatest cricketer.
“His bat was very big that day. As you saw in the video clip, it was almost like a faultless innings.
Again, the way he played the ball nice and late. When I see the footage, I don’t think we stuck to our bowling plan and gave him a lot of width.
But again, to achieve that and on a wicket that offered a lot to the seamers shows that it was a spectacular knock,”
stated Morkel while speaking to Star Sports.
Despite this knock, Tendulkar ended up on a losing side as the visitors fell by an innings and 25 runs. India were bowled out for just 136, in which Tendulkar scored 36 off 34, and Morkel claimed five for 20. The hosts then piled on 620/4, after which India had to bat to save the Test, but were eventually bowled out for 459 in the second innings.
India won the next Test by 87 runs at Durban and managed to draw the third at Cape Town, where Tendulkar scored another quality knock of 146 in the first innings. The series ended in a 1-1 draw, which remains India’s best result in a Test series in the rainbow nation till this day. Tendulkar was the top run-scorer for the visiting side, scoring 326 runs at an average of 81.50 with two centuries.
