Sachin Tendulkar is considered as one of the greatest batsman in cricket. His numbers in Tests and ODIs are a yardstick upon which greatness is measured. His contributions in India as well as overseas marks him out as the ultimate batsman for any condition. Sachin Tendulkar had shots for any kind of deliveries, whether it was the flick, the straight drive, the cut or the cover drive. He executed all of that brilliantly. However, there was one shot that he never prepared or planned in his playing career. It came about as instinct. But, when he executed it, a lot of fast bowlers were ‘disturbed’.
In a recent interaction on Youtube, Sachin Tendulkar revealed how he used the Upper Cut to great effect without ever practicing or planning for the shot in the nets. During the Youtube Q & A session, a fan named Anuraj Ande asked, “#AskSachin did you practice upper-cut shot or just instinct when your playing?”
To this, Tendulkar responded and that left many fans flummoxed. “It happened in 2001 in South Africa, when we were playing a Test match in Bloemfontein. We were batting first and Makhaya Ntini was bowling around the off stump as he normally used to bowl short of a length. He rarely bowled length deliveries. Since he used to run wide of the crease, I could sight the line. The South African pitches offer enough bounce. The normal tendency to deal with those bouncers is to go top of the bowl. And if it bounces more than usual for somebody of my height, why not get under it and still be aggressive and attacking,” Tendulkar said.
After unfurling the upper-cut during the Bloemfontein Test, Tendulkar used that shot to great effect in many years. He played that shot frequently in Australia, where he upper-cut Peter Siddle in Melbourne in 2011 as well as Brett Lee in Perth in 2008. Tendulkar also used the upper-cut in New Zealand as well.
“That was something I felt. Instead of getting on top of the ball and trying to keep it all along the ground, get under it and play it towards third man boundary, utilizing the pace. That shot disturbed a number of fast bowlers because they bowl bouncers to concede a dot ball. But I converted those into boundaries. I actually didn’t plan anything. Sometimes you just have to let your natural instincts take over after getting at the crease. And that’s what I did,” Sachin Tendulkar said.