Sachin Tendulkar: A man of many milestones

Sachin Tendulkar

He has been traveling for nearly 25 years. As you would expect from a distinguished journey of such elaborate distance and time, Sachin Tendulkar did pass many a milestone. But more importantly, the man from Mumbai will be known and revered for the many markers he had left in his glorious path. He was the first batsman to score more than 12,000 runs in Test matches and the first past the 10,000 run mark in ODIs.

As a cricketer Sachin surpassed everyone by the sheer volume of his effort, leaving in his trail a wake of records, many of which promise to stand the test of time.

Here is a look at some of the outstanding accomplishments of this disciplined cricketer -

Test Matches

• Since his debut in 1989, Sachin has played an incredible 198 Test matches, with the two upcoming matches against West Indies expected to help him end his career with 200 matches.
• Sachin was the first batsman to score over 12,000 runs in Test cricket and his current tally of 15,837 runs at an impressive 53.86 per innings to stand on a pedestal of his own making.
• The Mumbaikar is the only player to have scored more than 1000 runs in a calendar year on six different occasions. Sachin made an even 1000 runs in 1997, repeating the feat in 1999 (1,088 runs), 2001 (1,003), 2002 (1,392), 2008 (1,063) and finally in 2010, when he scored his highest collection of runs in a calendar year – 1, 562.
• Tendulkar is the only player to have scored 50 Test match centuries, he has 51 centuries in his kitty. The batsman nearest to the great Indian is Jacques Kallis, who has 44 hundreds from his 162 matches.
• Sachin has also scored 67 fifties in Test match cricket, with the retired Ricky Ponting coming nearest with 62 scores of between fifty and hundred.
• Tendulkar has 10 scores in the nineties in Test match cricket, which is a record he shares with Steve Waugh and Rahul Dravid.
• Despite not having details for the entire duration of his career, Tendulkar’s feat of scoring more than 2044 boundaries is an unmatched feat by a long distance.

One Day Internationals

• No player had played 400 one day internationals before Sachin did so at Vadodara in 2007 against the visiting Australians. He has played an astounding 463 matches before calling it a day in 2012.
• Sachin has played 185 matches on the trot for India, which is the highest uninterrupted run of matches by any player in the history of ODI cricket.
• Not a single batsman had crossed the 10,000 run mark, till Tendulkar blazed his way past the mark in 2001 whilst scoring 139 against the Australians in Indore. Tendulkar went on to amass 18,426 runs at an average of 44.83 to stand head and shoulders above the field.
• In February 2010, Sachin became the first batsman to score 200 runs in an ODI during his innings of 200* of 147 balls against the South Africans at Gwalior.
• Sachin enjoyed a remarkably rich harvest of runs in 1998 – easily the most prolific calendar year for a batsman in ODI cricket. The little master scored 1,894 runs with 9 centuries during that year, both records that stand unsurpassed. No player has ever come close to threatening those numbers ever since.
• Sachin’s collection of 673 runs in the 2003 world cup remains the highest number of runs scored by batsman at a world cup. The prolific batsman amassed 2,278 runs in world cup matches, spread over six events, at an average 56.95 to set a benchmark that might stand the test of time. No one else has come close to crossing past the 2000 run mark in world cup matches.
• The indefatigable player was decorated with the man of the match award in 62 matches, the highest for any player in ODI cricket. The man who came nearest was Sanath Jayasuriya, who earned the honour in 48 matches.
• Sachin was also awarded the player of the series award on 15 occasions during a career that spanned 108 one day international series. There was a gap of 22 years and 91 days between his first match in December 1989 and the last one in March 2012, the longest ODI career in the history of the game.
• Of his 49 ODI hundreds, nine have come against Australia and eight against Sri Lanka, which are also the records for the most hundreds scored against a single team.
• Sachin has scored the most nineties too – 18 of his record 96 fifties ended with him being stranded or dismissed in the 90s. In 2007, Sachin was dismissed on 99 three times by South Africa, England and Pakistan.
• The God of cricket has sent the ball scurrying past the ropes an incredible 2016 times, no other batsman has managed to score more than 1500 boundaries.

Some of these accomplishments are a tribute to the unquenchable thirst and desire of the little master, but in a more telling manner they stand testimony to his love for the game. It takes immense power of concentration, hardwork and the self discipline of a monk to stitch together a career that shall probably remain unmatched forever.

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