Along with former Test skipper Steve Waugh, Tendulkar was inducted as a Bradman Foundation honouree at a gala black tie dinner.

Waugh remembered hearing Tendulkar say pre-match he would not hit a cover drive because he’d had trouble with the stroke.

“We thought at some stage he’d have to give into it, he’d have to weaken but 241 runs later he hadn’t played a cover drive,” Waugh said. “So maybe he was looking after me. If he had played the cover drive he might have been 400 not out.”

It was also Waugh’s last Test, and though India put on 705 in the first innings, Australia almost clawed their way back.

“We knew we had to get him out quickly because if he was there you were in trouble,” Tendulkar said of Waugh.

“The last Test match that he played here, I still remember I was the one who took his catch. I ran across to congratulate him on a successful career and also to wish him and his family the best for the future.”

Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh are Bradman Foundation honourees. Source: News Limited

Ten years on, the pair reminisced last night and under a stand bearing his name, the Bradman legacy was never far away.

“To be associated in any way with Sir Donald Bradman’s name is a great honour, and to be here tonight with Sachin, the modern day Bradman, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Waugh said.

Tendulkar hadn’t spoken publicly in Sydney since the Monkeygate drama in 2008 but he left the assembled crowd — camera phones at the ready — in a far better mood than that divisive day.

It is one of his well-used lines but with the skill of yet another flawless off-drive, Tendulkar recalled again asking Bradman what he’d average in modern cricket.

“He thought about it and said: “Maybe 70”,” Tendulkar said.

“The natural reaction was why only 70 and not 99? He said: “C’mon, that’s not bad for a 90-year-old man.”

by: IAIN PAYTEN, From: The Daily Telegraph, October 30, 2014 12:42AM