When Australia Had No Answer to Sachin Tendulkar in 1998
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Sachin Tendulkar is known as the Master Blaster for a reason. His prime has been something which no other top batsman has been able to beat in a long time. Back in 1998, when India and Australia faced each other in 7 ODIs, Tendulkar created a record by winning 6 POTM awards.
If a team is able to win several games in a series and it also has several POTM awards, it is called a perfect teamwork. But when one player is able to win the POTM award six times against a single team in a year, it is called absolute dominance. And this record has been achieved by none other than Sachin Tendulkar.
He was able to achieve the same against Australia back in 1998. India and Australia faced each other in 7 ODIs, and Sachin Tendulkar was able to win the POTM award in six of them. Only one match allowed Steve Waugh to win the POTM award.
Here's how Tendulkar dominated the Aussies in all the ODIs.
Sachin Tendulkar managed to score just 8 runs off 11 balls with the bat. But when he came with the ball, he was able to take a five wicket haul, and helped the Indian team to win the game by 41 runs.
In the second ODI at Kanpur, he was able to score a century for the Indian team. With the ball also, he managed to take a wicket, winning the POTM award for his performances.
He didn't win the POTM award in the third ODI game but went on to score 80 runs off 72 balls to win the award in the 4th match against the Aussies.
Sachin Tendulkar played the famous Desert Storm innings, as he went on to score 143 runs off 131 balls, even when the game was affected by a sandstorm.
He played the sixth ODI against Australia in the same year on his 25th birthday. In this game, he scored 134 runs off 131 balls and even helped India to win the Coca Cola Cup final.
India and Australia faced each other in the ICC Knockout Trophy, where he scored 141 runs off 128 balls, and even took 3 wickets to win his sixth POTM against Australia in the same year.