Sachin Tendulkar vs Shane Warne: Brett Lee reveals how Little Master used different technique to negate spin wizard's mastery

Among many mini battles in the past, the one between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne garnered the most attention. These were two genuine masters of their craft and the late 90s was a period where both of them bossed around in the cricketing world. Warne, the spin wizard, who could spin the ball on flattest of wickets, used to made batsmen dance to his tunes. And whenever he came up against Tendulkar, fans licked their lips. [caption id=“attachment_3173234” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Australia’s Shane Warne (L) watches as India’s Sachin Tendulkar (C) plays a shot. (File image)[/caption] Former Australia pacer Brett Lee, who was also once a teammate of Warne, shared an interesting anecdote on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, where he revealed how Tendulkar used different techniques to play Warne and succeeded on many occasions. He said that the Little Master was great at picking the deliveries out of the bowler’s hands and Warne once felt frustrated at that. Lee said, “There were times when Warne would try and get the trajectory a bit different through the air and sometimes, he would try and get a few balls to drop. Every time he would try the subtle variations, there was only Sachin who would pick them up. Warne would bamboozle other batsmen around the world, but Sachin would watch the hand much better than most of the other batsmen. Warne hated it, he would come back and say that he tried everything to get Sachin out, but he couldn’t.” Lee also said that Tendulkar used his feet well against Warner, coming out of the crease, at times, to disturb the bowler’s length. He said, “He (Sachin) used to advance down the wicket a few times and invited Warne to bowl a fraction too short. Sometimes, he would wait patiently on the back foot and play those beautiful shots. It was almost like he was playing cat and mouse with Warne and not many batsmen can play cat and mouse with Shane Warne because he’s so talented. But on days, Sachin Tendulkar was toying with Warne and that does not happen often.” Revisiting the first time he bowled at Tendulkar, Lee said that when he got the Indian legend out, it seemed the Test match was over for him. He said, “I was 22 years when I got my first opportunity to play against the Little Master. I nicked him off and I thought I’m done. I didn’t care about a Test match since I was so happy to get Sachin Tendulkar out.”