Upper-cut shot disturbed a number of fast bowlers: Sachin Tendulkar

Former Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar is renowned as one of the greatest batsmen of all times. Tendulkar had a variety of shots in his bag including flick, straight drive, cut, cover drive and many more. Though he used to play all the aforementioned shots brilliantly irrespective of the bowler, there was one shot named as ‘upper-cut’ which the Master Blaster played purely on his instincts without practicing in the nets.

While interacting with the audience on YouTube, Tendulkar revealed how he invented the upper cut shot and what prompted him to use it against Makhaya Ntini in a Test fixture against South Africa in 2001.

In a Question and Answer session on YouTube, a fan named Anuraj Ande asked Sachin, “#AskSachin did you practice upper-cut shots or just instinct when you’re playing?” Taking note of this, the former captain replied, “It happened in 2001 in South Africa, when we were playing a Test match in Bloemfontein. We were batting first and Makhaya Ntini was bowling around the off stump as he normally used to bowl short of a length. He rarely bowled length deliveries.”

“Since he used to run wide of the crease, I could sight the line. The South African pitches offer enough bounce. The normal tendency to deal with those bouncers is to go top of the bowl. And if it bounces more than usual for somebody of my height, why not get under it and still be aggressive and attacking.”

Sometimes you just have to let your natural instincts take over, says Tendulkar

Further, Sachin Tendulkar explained that it was his instinct that told him to play the ball towards the third man boundary instead of getting on the top of the ball. He didn’t stop after using the upper-cut once in South Africa as he tried to implement that shot against various bowlers in different venues. It was one of his favourite shots to play on the pitches of Australia and New Zealand.

“That was something I felt. Instead of getting on top of the ball and trying to keep it all along the ground, get under it and play it towards the third man boundary, utilizing the pace. That shot disturbed a number of fast bowlers because they bowl bouncers to concede a dot ball. But I converted those into boundaries. I actually didn’t plan anything. Sometimes you just have to let your natural instincts take over after getting at the crease. And that’s what I did,” Tendulkar added.