Sachin Tendulkar's 100th 100 (vs Ban) in International cricket

On 16th March 2012, while playing for India in the Asia Cup, batting legend Sachin Tendulkar made history by becoming the first player ever in cricket history to record 100 international centuries.

Image Credits: The Statesman

It was Tendulkar's maiden ODI century against Bangladesh and his 49th and last ODI century overall. By the time he finally reached his 100th international ton, Tendulkar was 38 years old. Against South Africa in Nagpur, India, in the 2011 World Cup, he scored his 99th international century! With 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs, Sachin Tendulkar is the only player thus far to scale 100 100s at the international level.

Though he had chances in between, the 100th was not easy to come by even for the God of Cricket! Between his 99th century (111 vs SA in Mar 2011) and his 100th century (114 vs Ban in Mar 2012), he had scored 8 half-centuries with two scores in the 80s and two scores in the 90s (91 vs Eng at The Oval and 94 vs West Indies at Wankhede)! Eventually, the moment arrived in an Asia Cup match against Bangladesh.

Tendulkar scored a century, but it wasn't enough to save India's five-wicket loss to Bangladesh in Dhaka. Indian team achieved 289/5 thanks mainly to Tendulkar's 114 runs (from 147 balls including 12 fours and 1 six).

Powered by Shakib Al Hasan's 49 off 31 balls, Bangladesh reached their goal of 295 with four balls to spare. All top-3 batters of Bangladesh reached fifty: Tamim Iqbal (70), Jahurul Islam (53), and Nasir Hossain (54). The Indian team was eliminated in the group stage. Bangladesh though made it to the Final and lost to Pakistan in a close finish.

After his innings, Tendulkar stated, "I can't think of anything at this time, it has been a trying period for me. While the season got off to a good start, my luck quickly ran out. You still have to put in the work, no matter how many hundreds you get."

In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. After amassing an incredible 18,426 runs at an average of 44.83 throughout 463 games. He played 200 Tests and retired from international cricket in 2013 with 15,921 runs, averaging 53.78. To date, Sachin Tendulkar is the only have scored over 15K runs each in both formats of the game.