On this day (August 29) in 1999, Sachin Tendulkar scored his 23rd One Day International ton and his 42nd overall, against Sri Lanka in the sixth match of the Aiwa Cup in Colombo. India were picking up the pieces after a disappointing World Cup campaign in England earlier that year and Tendulkar had been re-appointed captain. Despite facing a back injury, India's batting lynchpin was on song.
This Indian team had the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath among others and faced a Sri Lankan side with big names such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas and of course, the wily spin king, Muttiah Muralitharan.
Sri Lanka had won the toss and opted to bowl first. In walked Tendulkar and Sadagoppan Ramesh to face the likes of Vaas and Co. The opening pair stitched together a stand of 75 runs before Ramesh was out for 32. Tendulkar, after a strong start, started decimating the Sri Lankan bowlers. He took on Nuwan Zoysa and also ensured that that the wily Muralitharan never got the better of him. He smashed the spin legend for a six when was on 90. However, his back problems began to act up once again.
It was an era where Tendulkar was at the height of his stroke-making days but he used the long handle judiciously here and soon got to his hundred. A spectator ran on to the ground to wish Tendulkar even before he got to a 100. The milestone came after a hilarious turn of events: he hit the ball back to Suresh Perera, who attempted a run out at the striker's end. The ball hit the stumps and raced to the boundary for a four.
Tendulkar smashed 120 in 141 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes. Ganguly helped him add 127 in 22 overs as India advanced towards an imposing 296. However, the target was revised with rain playing spoilsport. Sri Lanka's revised target was 271 in 42 overs, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method but they fell 23 runs short.
