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Pak was always fearful of Sachin: Raja
Pak was always "fearful" of Tendulkar and felt if he got a little leeway he would "tease you very badly", says the former captain.
Pakistan was always "fearful" of Sachin Tendulkar and felt if he got a little leeway he would "tease you very badly", says former captain Rameez Raja.
"We were fearful of him. The idea at the team meetings, discussed very popularly, was to get him out very early in the innings," Raja, in India as a commentator for the ongoing India-Pakistan series, said in an interview.
"Otherwise, if you gave him breathing space, he would tease you very badly. The idea was to put pressure on him early on when he had arrived at the crease, and then to limit and try to frustrate him if he had got settled."
Raja led Pakistan in One-Day Internationals against Tendulkar, who is currently on the threshold of a few world records.
Tendulkar is just four runs short of becoming only the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to score 10,000 Test runs and he shares with the legendary opener the world record of maximum Test centuries — 34.
Raja played against Tendulkar in his Test and One-Day International debut match, at Karachi and Gujranwala, on India's 1989 tour of Pakistan, and later led the Pakistani side in both versions of the game.
Raja disclosed how he planned Tendulkar's dismissal as Pakistan captain.
"The aim was to basically apply pressure by bowling on the off-stump line, taking a chance once or twice in two-three overs, but not to overdo it because he could smash you if you were trying too many things too soon," he revealed.
"One hoped for the best and always felt the pressure of an India-Pakistan game would get him a little nervous and we would get his scalp," said the former opener who played 57 Tests and 198 One-Day Internationals between 1984 and 1997.
"But I believe that's how Pakistan teams have operated — they tried to attack early on and tried to conserve when he had got settled," he said.
Raja, 42, was also impressed by Tendulkar's attitude towards the game.
