Sachin Tendulkar has shared what he considers his most important century in cricket. Looking back to 2008, he recalls during a series against England, a terror attack happened in Mumbai that took over 160 lives and injured many more. Because of the attack, the last two ODIs were canceled, and there were doubts about whether England would complete the tour.
After a week in Dubai, the England team returned to India. Sachin thanked the England and Wales Cricket Board for bringing the players back. The Test series kicked off on December 11 in Chennai, just under two weeks after the attack. India was behind by 75 runs after the first innings, and England scored an additional 311 in their second inning, with Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood both hitting centuries. It looked like India was in trouble, but Sachin and the team rallied to pull off a win.
With Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir also contributing good runs, Sachin scored an unbeaten 103, and with Yuvraj Singh making 85, they secured victory by six wickets. Seventeen years later, Sachin revealed that this century meant a lot to him, particularly given the fragile situation after the attack. He described how tense the atmosphere was, not just for the team, but for the whole nation.
He mentioned how they struggled for the first three days until Zaheer Khan began taking wickets and Sehwag started hitting incredible shots, despite facing a strong English bowling lineup. After the match, Sachin reflected on how amazed they were at their performance considering the circumstances, saying it felt like the most meaningful hundred of his career.