He had mastered that art: Sachin Tendulkar on Dale Steyn’s fast bowling

Oh, Test cricket! The ground where epic battles are fought, where the best come up against their fiercest nemesis, where every inch of a player’s determination is tested to the limit, where battles might be lost but wars are won. The world was witness to one such unforgettable encounter when India toured South Africa for a Test series in 2011. The field was set with the series tied at 1 game each, and all to play for in Cape Town.

Sachin Tendulkar was still at the peak of his prowess, having just brought up his 50th Test Century in the first game of the series. With the series on the line, South Africa had put up 362 runs batting first. In response, a typically gritty 93 by Gautam Gambhir had put India slightly ahead of the game at lunch on Day 3. With Sachin Tendulkar still going strong, and Cheteshwar Pujara having just arrived at the crease, the first hour post-lunch was going to decide the series.

In the first two overs of his spell after lunch, Dale Steyn running in with the menacing frown on his face with the unwavering intensity of a warrior knocked over Cheteshwar Pujara and the Indian captain MS Dhoni. But Tendulkar was still going strong. What followed was a test of attrition, neither Tendulkar nor Steyn giving an inch. Any bowler would find it tough to beat the bat of a  well-set Sachin Tendulkar, but on this day, Steyn was at his unplayable best.

Reminiscing the incredible battle, Sachin Tendulkar called the battle one “he will never forget”, and the spell “one of his finest spells of fast bowling.” Tendulkar would brave his way through the extraordinary spell of fast bowling, but the scars would remain, one in which Tendulkar had to bring in all the two decades of batting experience to survive. “For close to an hour, we couldn’t rotate the strike at all. Whatever runs we scored, we scored in boundaries! That one hour, I can say, is one of the most thrilling, interesting, and challenging hours that I’ve played in Test cricket!” Tendulkar said.

Ian Gould, who had the pleasure of witnessing the two greats go head-to-head from the umpire’s position said, "That was fierce but fair. That was as good as it got. I stood there with a brilliant umpire, Simon Taufel, and the two of us came off and said, "Wow, we'd pay for that." Dale bowled very quickly and Sachin just had the railway sleeper in his hand and kept patting it back at him. Fantastic.”

“The swing that he consistently got at that pace was incredible. When he was at his peak, he was bowling close to 150 KMPH, so it wasn’t that easy to handle. That’s where he had mastered that art. When he wanted to be really quick, he could do so,” Tendulkar added of Dale Steyn.