Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar has reached yet another milestone in his career. On the third day of Irani trophy, he scored a brilliant unbeaten 140 runs at Wankhede Stadium. During the course of his innings he also achieved the honours of equaling the record of Little Master Sunil Gavaskar with 81 first class centuries, which is the maximum in the first-class matches by an Indian.
In the process, when he scored his 106th run of his innings, he also completed his 25,000 runs in first class cricket. Wankhede has always been his happy hunting ground where he has more than often gone after the bowling attack with his world class batting.
On Friday, he was getting the runs very quickly and was looking to capitalize on every opportunity to keep himself in a good nick before the Test series against Australia.
It was at the same venue that Tendulkar had scored 100 not out against Gujarat in his Ranji Trophy debut in December 1988. Then he scored 103 not out in his first Irani Cup match against Delhi in November 1989, again at the Wankhede Stadium. In August 1990, when India was on England tour, Tendulkar scored his maiden Test century and remained 119 not out, in the second innings of the Manchester Test against England.
The break-up of 100s of both the legend in their first-class career:
Sunil Gavaskar: Tests (34), Unofficial Test against Sri Lanka (1), Ranji Trophy (20), Duleep Trophy (6), Irani Cup (3), Rest of the World (1), Somerset (2) and others (14).
Sachin Tendulkar: Tests (51), Ranji Trophy (18), Duleep Trophy (3), Irani Cup (2), Yorkshire (1) and others (6).