In 99 he did dominate McGrath on occassions. I still remember the last test match where Tendulkar was batting with gay abandon and he pulled, hooked and drove McGrath in one over before McGrath was able to get him out with a ridiculous lbw decision (that series had some serious umpiring blinders and am not referring to the shoulder before wicket). McGrath abused Tendulkar verbally after that and that showed how much the little master had got under the skin of the master bowler.
No, he didn't. Tendulkar merely played him well. Not brilliant, not dominating...nothing of that sort. If you mean a shot here and there, then that's not really domination.
1st test:
1st Inning
Tendulkar: 61 runs @ 45.86
McGrath: 2 wickets for 49 runs; with
13 Maidens in 30 overs at an ER of 1.63
2nd Inning
Tendulkar: 0 runs - McGrath got him.
McGrath: 3 wickets for 35 runs; with 2 Maidens in 12 overs at an ER of 2.91
2nd test:
1st Inning
Tendulkar: 116 runs @ 60.73
McGrath: 3 wickets for 39 runs; with 3 Maidens in 18.1 overs at an ER of 2.14
2nd Inning
Tendulkar: 52 runs
McGrath: 0 wickets for 22 runs; with
8 Maidens in 17 overs at an ER of 1.29
3rd test:
1st Inning
Tendulkar: 45 runs @ 84.90 - McGrath got him.
McGrath: 5 wickets for 48 runs; with 7 Maidens in 18.5 overs at an ER of 2.54
2nd Inning
Tendulkar: 4 runs @ 100.00
McGrath: 5 wickets for 55 runs; with 1 Maiden in 17 overs at an ER of 3.23
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As I said, McGrath went for peanuts, even when Tendulkar was scoring runs. So it obviously wasn't him that was being shellacked. This is also illustrated by the ER. The two times McGrath actually has a pretty high ER Tendulkar made pretty much no runs.
I wouldnt split hairs that far. If McGrath bowled against him in 99 and Tendulkar managed to score well overall, Tendulkar should get credit for it.
Let's not forget that Tendulkar did very well against an attack with Brett Lee bowling at worldclass quality, along with quality support from Clark and Johnson. Tendulkar has pretty much done well every time he's gone to Australia.
I agree with you, so I sum up by saying he did pretty well. Where I draw the line is "brilliant and dominated McGrath".
And I'd also have a hard time equating the attack with Lee, Clarke and co with McGrath, Gillespie and co.