Sachin Tendulkar continued performing well in Test cricket in 2001 and 2002, wit

h some pivotal performances with both bat and ball. Tendulkar took three wickets
on the final day of the famous Kolkata Test against Australia in 2001. Tendulka
r took the key wickets of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, who were centurions
in the previous Test.[108] In the five-match ODI series that followed, he took
his 100th wicket in ODIs, claiming the wicket of then Australian captain Steve W
augh in the final match at the Fatorda Stadium in Goa.[109]
In the 2002 series in the West Indies, Tendulkar started well, scoring 79 in the
first Test. In the second Test at Port of Spain, Sachin Tendulkar scored 117 in
the first innings, his 29th Test century in his 93rd Test match, to equal Sir D
onald Bradman's record of 29 Test hundreds.[110][111][112] Then, in a hitherto u
nprecedented sequence, he scored 0, 0, 8 and 0 in the next four innings,[113] ge
tting out to technical "defects" and uncharacteristically poor strokes.[citation
needed] He returned to form in the last Test scoring 41 and 86. However, India
lost the series.[114] This might have been the beginning of the "decline" phase
in his career which lasted till 2006.[original research?] In the third Test matc
h against England in August 2002, Sachin scored his 30th Test century to surpass
Bradman's haul, in his 99th Test match.[115][116]
Tendulkar made 673 runs in 11 matches in the 2003 Cricket World Cup,[117] helpin
g India reach the final. While Australia retained the trophy that they had won i
n 1999, Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.[118][119]
He continued to score heavily in ODI cricket that year, with two hundreds in a t
ri-series involving New Zealand and Australia.[120][121] As a part-time bowler,
he dismissed an exhausted centurion, Matthew Hayden in the tri-series final.[122
]
The drawn series as India toured Australia in 2003 04 saw Tendulkar making his mar
k in the last Test of the series, with 241 not out in Sydney, putting India in a
virtually unbeatable position. He followed up the innings with an unbeaten 60 i
n the second innings of the Test.[123] Prior to this Test match, he had had an u
nusually horrible run of form, failing in all six innings in the preceding three
Tests.[citation needed] It was no aberration that 2003 was his worst year in Te
st cricket, with an average of 17.25 and just one fifty.[124][better source need
ed]
Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 194 against Pakistan at Multan in the following ser
ies. India declared before Tendulkar reached 200; had he done so it would have b
een the fourth time he passed the landmark in Tests.[125] In meeting with the pr
ess that evening, Tendulkar stated that he was disappointed and that the declara
tion had taken him by surprise.[126] Many former cricketers commented that Dravi
d's declaration was in bad taste.[127][128] After India won the match, the capta
in Rahul Dravid stated that the matter was spoken internally and put to rest.[12
9]
A tennis elbow injury then took its toll on Tendulkar, leaving him out of the si
de for most of the year, coming back only for the last two Tests when Australia
toured India in 2004.[130][131] He played a part in India's victory in Mumbai in
that series with a fast 55, though Australia took the series 2 1.[132]