Fact check! Dale Steyn lied about getting close to dismissing Sachin Tendulkar in 190s in Gwalior ODI

New Delhi, May 17: South Africa seamer Dale Steyn made a startling remark when he claimed that umpire Ian Gould had denied him Sachin Tendulkar's wicket fearing a backlash from the Indian crowd.

In the Gwalior one-day between India and South Africa in 2010, the batting maestro reached the landmark ODI double ton and became the first man to do so. Steyn, however, made a rather controversial statement when he alleged that the umpire deliberately not give Tendulkar out of his appeal when the batsman was in the 190s.

During a Sky Sports Cricket Podcast with England pacer James Anderson, Steyn said, "Tendulkar scored the first double hundred in ODI cricket, and it was against us in Gwalior. And I actually remember - I think I got him out lbw when he was about 190-odd. Ian Gould was the umpire, and he gave him not out.

"And I was like, 'Why, why did you give him not out!? That's so dead.' And he was like, 'Mate, look around - if I gave him out, I won't make it back to the hotel.'"

However, if one observes the scorecard and commentary of the said match, which India won by 153 runs after dismissing SA for 248 in 42.5 overs, Steyn never got close to dismissing Tendulkar in the 190s.

In fact ever since the Mumbaikar reached 150 in that innings, the right-arm seamer bowled him just three deliveries and all those balls were played with the bat. Tendulkar faced Steyn's 31 deliveries in that game and none of those produced a close LBW shout.

After Sachin entered in the 190s, Steyn bowled the 47th and 49th over. Of those 12 deliveries, Tendulkar faced all three of them in the 47th over while his batting partner MS Dhoni played the 49th over all by himself.

On the first ball from Steyn, Sachin took a single by patting the short of a good length delivery towards point. The second ball which Tendulkar faced produced no run as the bowler fielded it himself, thereby denying the batsman any chance to score. And the third delivery which Tendulkar faced produced a single towards midwicket.

This proves that there was no such LBW appeal from Steyn in that game, as claimed by him. It wasn't a memorable game for Steyn in particular as he ended up conceding 89 runs from his full quota of 10 overs and remained wicketless.

Thus, after going through the match commentary one can clearly say that either the Protea pacer was lying or he mistook the incident with some other game.