Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps the most complete batsman of all time. In his illustrious 24 year career, the maestro reinvented himself a lot of times and also added new strokes in his armoury. One stroke of Tendulkar that always fascinated everyone and fetched him a lot of runs was his eye-catching uppercut.
His iconic uppercut shot against Shoaib Akhtar in the 2003 world cup is still talked about. Recently Tendulkar disclosed the story behind the invention of his uppercut shot. In a new video for 100 MB, one of his fans asked Tendulkar about his famous unorthodox shot.
A fan asked, “#AskSachin did you practice upper-cut shot or just an instinct when you were playing”, a fan named Anuraj Ande questioned.
Sachin Tendulkar Recalls The Story Behind His Uppercut Shot
Tendulkar answered that the first time he executed the uppercut shot was in 2002 against South Africa in a Test match. The little master recalled that fast bowler Makhaya Ntini was constantly bowling length deliveries outside off to build pressure. He then let his instinct take over and used the bounce of the pitches to his advantage.
“It happened in 2002 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,” said Sachin Tendulkar.
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Meanwhile further Tendulkar added that since there was no fielder at the third man boundary he never intended to keep the shot along the ground. Plus the pace of the South African bowlers helped and he converted bouncers into boundary balls by playing the uppercut. Tendulkar scored a masterful century in that Test match and dominated the fast bowlers of South Africa.
“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”, he added.
“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”, Tendulkar said in a video uploaded on YouTube.
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