Arjun Tendulkar claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket for Goa in a Ranji Trophy 2024 match against Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday.
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar made his first-class debut in the 1988-89 season and played FC cricket for better part of 25 years. The former India captain has most of international cricket’s top batting records to his name with 15,926 Test runs, 18,426 ODI runs and 100 international centuries.
It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of such a legend and his son Arjun Tendulkar knows that. The left-arm pace bowling all-rounder has moved from Mumbai to Goa in order to get more game time in first-class cricket.
On Wednesday, Arjun Tendulkar achieved a feat that his legendary father couldn’t achieve in 25 years of domestic cricket. Arjun claimed his maiden first-class five-wicket haul – claiming 5 for 25 in 9 overs against Arunachal Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy 2024 match in Porvorim.
Thanks to Arjun’s brilliant spell, Arunachal Pradesh were bundled out for just 84 in 30.3 overs. Arjun picked up the first five Arunachal Pradesh’s wickets to fall complete his best-ever figures in a first-class match.
Today, Arjun Tendulkar has made an impressive start to his burgeoning FC cricket career by achieving a five-wicket haul. Previously, in 2022, he had a century to his credit.
His father, Sachin Tendulkar, could not accomplish this ‘double’ during his long FC career!— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) November 13, 2024
Before Wednesday’s match, Arjun had claimed 32 wickets in 16 first-class matches at an average of 37.75 and scored 532 runs – including a century. His legendary father Sachin Tendulkar had a couple of five-wicket hauls in ODI cricket – a best of 5/32 against Australia.
But in first-class cricket, Sachin’s best were 3/10 – in the famous 2001 Test vs Australia in Kolkata – in 310 matches. In these games, he picked up 71 wickets at an average of 61.74. Sachin had 46 Test wickets to his name and 154 ODI wickets.
Arjun’s fine spell couldn’t have come at a better time for the youngster with the IPL 2025 mega auction a little over week away, set to take place in Jeddah on November 24 and 25. The 25-year-old had been part of the Mumbai Indians franchise till the IPL 2024 season with a salary of Rs 30 lakh.