100th international century of sachin tendulkar

Tendulkar scored his much awaited 100th international hundred on 16 March 2012, at Mirpur against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup.^[124] He became the first person in history to achieve this feat. Incidentally, it was Tendulkar's first ODI hundred against Bangladesh. He said "It's been a tough phase for me ... I was not thinking about the milestone, the media started all this, wherever I went, the restaurant, room service, everyone was talking about the 100th hundred. Nobody talked about my 99 hundreds. It became mentally tough for me because nobody talked about my 99 hundreds."^[125] Despite Tendulkar's century, India failed to win the match against Bangladesh, losing by 5 wickets.^[126]

Return To Ranji Trophy and retirement from ODIs

After getting out bowled on 3 similar instances against the New Zealand recently and hitting a slump in form, Tendulkar returned to the Ranji Trophy to get back some form ahead of the England Series at home, in a match for Mumbai against Railways on 2 November 2012. All eyes were on Tendulkar, who was playing his first Ranji Trophy match since 2009. And he didn't disappoint smashing 137 off 136 balls with 21 fours and 3 Sixes, to take his team to 344 for 4 at stumps on day one.^[126]

However, because of a poor form in the first two Tests in the series against England, and India being humiliated in the second match of that series by 10 wickets on 26 November 2012,^[127] some people have started to question his place in the Indian team. A report by The Hindustan Times said that Tendulkar had a discussion with the national chief selector Sandeep Patil, in which he said that he would leave it to the selectors to decide on his future as he is not getting any runs.^[128] This speculation, however, was later considered to be false.^[129][130]

Following poor performance in the 2012 series against England, Tendulkar announced his retirement from One Day Internationals on 23 December 2012, while noting that he will be available for Test cricket.^{[131][132][133]} In response to the news, former India captain Sourav Ganguly noted that Tendulkar could have played the up-coming series against Pakistan, while Anil Kumble said it would be "tough to see an Indian (ODI) team list without Tendulkar's name in it", and Javagal Srinath mentioned that Tendulkar "changed the way ODIs were played right from the time he opened in New Zealand in 1994".^[134]

Then he decided to play in the knockout stage of the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy. He scored 108 in the quarter final against Baroda before being bowled by Murtuja Vahora, where Sachin was involved in a 234-run partnership with openerWasim Jaffer (150) for the 3rd wicket at Wankhede Stadium.^[135] Mumbai eventually piled on 645/9 and won on 1st innings lead.^[136] In the semi final against Services at Palam A Ground, with Mumbai reeling at 23/3, Sachin scored 56 from 75 balls and had a 81-run 4th wicket partnership with Abhishek Nayar (70),^[137] and Mumbai eventually won on 1st innings lead after the match went into the sixth day due to rain delays.^[138] In the final against Saurashtra, he was run out for 22 following a misunderstanding with Wasim Jaffer.^[139] Mumbai eventually won the Ranji Trophy 2012-13.^[140]

He also played in the Irani Trophy for Mumbai, where he scored 140* against Rest of India and helped Mumbai to score 409 in reply to Rest of India's 526. This was also his 81st hundred in first-class cricket, equaling Sunil Gavaskar's Indian record for most first-class hundreds.^[14