Sachin Tendulkar scales Mt. 200 in ODI’s!!!

24 February 2010 will be remembered in history as the day when Sachin Tendulkar created history by becoming the first player ever to score a double hundred in a One Day International. He created this by scoring 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior. This effort also helped India win the match and seal the series, and along with it the no.2 ICC rankings in the ODI matches. Earlier his efforts in the test matches helped India maintain the number 1 position in ICC rankings of Test Matches. This record helps him achieve almost all the major batting records in ODI’s. The past one year has been great for Sachin Tendulkar in both forms of the game, and this has lead to show in the performance of the Indian cricket team as well. But yesterday’s performance can be called as the icing on the cake.

Sachin Tendulkar scored 200 in 147 balls yesterday, eclipsing many records on the way. This was his 46th ODI hundred; also he crossed the highest individual score of 194 earlier jointly held by Saeed Anwar of Pakistan and Charlie Converty of Zimbabwe. He then went on to become the first player to score a double hundred. Also this is his 5th 150+ ODI score out which 3 of them have come in the last 12 months. His innings included 25 fours which also is a record in an innings.

Many greats have applauded his efforts. While he was playing yesterday, Shane Warne tweeted and asked him to get to the world record and also said that he felt very happy that he is not bowling to him. Sunil Gavaskar applauded his effort and said that now he should try and score a 450 in a test innings and 250 in a ODI innings. Laxman also added that this effort is big and now one of the records left for Sachin is that of Lara’s 400 in a test innings. Amir Sohail added that Sachin literally was capable of this record because of his great respect to the game. I still can remember the moment when Sachin reached the Landmark and Ravi Shastri, the commentator at that moment announced that Sachin has become the first player on the planet to score a double hundred in an ODI. Many many legends came out yesterday and spoke out that Sachin really deserved to achieve this record, many of which include the likes of Kapil Dev, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Kumar Sangakara.

If we just come down to the records now holds almost all the batting records. He now has 17594 ODI runs, Sanath Jayasurya stands next in line at 13377 about 4000 runs behind him. Sachin now has 46 ODI hundreds and next is Ricky Ponting who is at 29 hundreds 17 behind the master. Sachin has 93 fifties to his name and 139 50+ scores in ODI’s. Now Sachin also holds the highest individual ODI score of 200 and is also the only player to score an ODI double hundred. If we talk about test matches he has 13447 runs with next being Lara at 11953 more than 1500 runs behind. Sachin has 47 test hundreds and next is Ricky Ponting with 39 and is 8 hundreds behind the master. He has a 101+ 50 scores in test matches which also is a record. One thing that he probably misses is a triple hundred in test matches. If we just see his International stats he has more than 31000 runs and 93 hundreds to go with it. This record cannot be of anyone else except that of the champion’s.

To give him a testimony Vivan Richards said “I think he will fit in whatever category of cricket that has been played.. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he is 99.5 % perfect.” A banner in Sydney by the Australian fans read “Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting, they will go unnoticed, bcouz even Lord is busy watching him play”. I would agree with this as yesterday in India the railway budget, one of the most waited events in the country was announced, and by the end of the day not many news channels were interested in it. Everywhere there was just one news… “Sachin Tendulkar”. Even the newspapers today have this genius’s effort as their top news. I guess this really testifies the stature of this master player and also the achievement that he achieved yesterday.

In my earlier posts when I wrote about him scaling the 30000 international runs and the 13000 test run mark I did mention many records that I would love Sachin to achieve. I just forget to mention this double hundred in the list there. The others being a hundred international hundreds, well Sachin has reached 93 already and its just 7 more to go. Hopefully he may get there this year itself. Also I would love to see him win the world cup next year.
At the end I would wish him congratulations for this achievement and also wish him best of luck for his future. Hopefully he will give us many more such moments to be proud of.