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'Warne asked, 'What do we do?' I told him, 'Warnie, now we lose': Mark Taylor recalls Tendulkar-Warne memory from 1998
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor recalled a memory from the contest between Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar in 1998.
Australia great Shane Warne passed away earlier this month following a suspected heart attack while on vacation in Thailand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest to ever play the game, Warne took 708 Test wickets which was a record at the time of his retirement in 2006. The Aussie legend was also a World Cup winner, and shared a great rivalry with some of the greatest batters to play the game including India's Sachin Tendulkar.
The rivalry between Warne and Tendulkar is well-documented. However, on Wednesday, former Australia captain Mark Taylor shared a hilarious story involving Warne and Tendulkar during the side's tour of India in 1998/99. Taylor revealed that Tendulkar made special preparations to face Warne, adding that he had asked the leg-spinner to target the Indian batter straight away.
"There was a lot of report of Sachin doing extra work to face Shane Warne. So I told Warne that as soon as Sachin walks out to bat, I'm putting you up straight away because he is obviously thinking about you. The first match we played was against Mumbai, and Sachin was playing for Mumbai which surprised us.
“I brought Warnie on. Sachin made around 180 and he smashed Warne all around the park. But to be fair, I don't think Warnie was giving his absolute best. Then we got to the first Test in Chennai. We got India 2 for 60-something and Sachin came out. I told Warnie, 'you are on next over'.
“First ball, Sachin gets down the track, hits Warnie over his head for a four. Two balls later, Warnie tossed it up, bit higher, Sachin went down the deck to hit over cover, edged it, straightaway to me at first slip. And he was out on 4. We thought we have got his number,” Taylor said during Shane Warne's State Memorial Service on Wednesday.
However, Tendulkar made a remarkable comeback in the second innings, remaining unbeaten on 155. India eventually won the game by 179 runs.
“In the second innings, out came Sachin again and I told Warnie, “you're on.” Once again, Sachin goes back over his head for four. Warnie said he would go around the wicket and use the footmarks on the leg stump. Next ball, he went inside out for four. In third or fourth ball, he slog-swept him for six. At the end of the over, Warnie asked me, 'Hey skip, what do we do now?' and I said, "Warnie, now we lose!"
"Sachin made 155 and I got one thing right. We lost!" Taylor said, inducing laughter from the crowd present at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
