Cricket
Tendulkar on top of the world
2010-02-24 16:42
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Gwalior - Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday became the first cricketer to score a double century in a One-Day International, when he led India to a 401 for three against South Africa.
The 36-year-old Mumbai-born batsman, who is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and ODI cricket, reached his unbeaten 200 off 147 balls in the second ODI against the visitors, who also lost the first ODI.
Reaching his 50 off only 37 balls, Tendulkar managed to achieve his century from 90 balls.
With the 140th ball he faced he went on to beat the old best-mark held jointly by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar and Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry, who both hit 194.
Anwar achieved his score against India in 1997 in Chennai, while Coventry scored 194 against Bangladesh in 2009 in Bulawayo.
Tendulkar managed to reach his double century with a single off Charl Langeveldt in the final over. His remarkable achievement was secured with 25 4s and three 6s to put India firmly in the driving seat.
Three Indians - Tendulkar, current captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and former skipper Sourav Ganguly - are responsible for four of the largest 11 solo one-day international scores while only Tendulkar and West Indies great Vivian Richards feature in that list twice.
Leading individual scores in ODIs (score, player, player's country, opponent, venue, date):
200/no Sachin Tendulkar IND v RSA, Gwalior Feb 24 2010
194/no Charles Coventry ZIM v BAN, Bulawayo Aug 16 2009
194 Saeed Anwar PAK v IND, Chennai May 21 1997
189/no Vivian Richards WIS v ENG, Old Trafford May 31 1984
189 Sanath Jayasuriya SRI v IND, Sharjah Oct 29 2000
188/no Gary Kirsten RSA v UAE, Rawalpindi Feb 16 1996
186/no Sachin Tendulkar IND v NZL, Hyderabad Nov 08 1999
183/no Mahendra Dhoni IND v SRI, Jaipur Oct 31 2005
183 Sourav Ganguly IND v SRI, Taunton May 26 1999
181/no Matthew Hayden AUS v NZL, Hamilto Feb 20 2007
181 Vivian Richards WIS v SRI, Karachi Oct 13 1987
Note: no = not out