Sachin Tendulkar has completed 17000 runs in one day internationals when he took
a single towards the leg-side in the game against Australia at Hyderabad.
He is the first batsman ever in the history of the game to reach the landmark
with Sanath Jayasuriya a distant second with 13000 odd runs.
In the process Sachin Tendulkar also played an innings to remember;
a 175 that saw him get his side close to the target, but in the end, fall short
by three runs of 350. Incidentally, this became the third highest score by someone
in a losing cause as Charles Coventry's 194 and Mathew Hayden's 181 before this
have had been played for a side which lost the game. However, this is the highest
score for an individual from a team batting second and losing the game.
This is the joint-13th highest score in ODI cricket. The highest ever individual
score in ODIs is jointly held by Charles Coventry and Saeed Anwar, but
Coventry holds the record because he had remained unbeaten in his innings. After
the pair, Vivian Richards and Sanath Jayasuriya have both scored 189,
followed by Gary Kirsten's 188. Tendulkar comes next at 186, to be followed
by two scores of 183 and two of 181 by Dhoni, Ganguly, Hayden and Richards.
India was chasing a target of 351 for a win in this game to take a 3-2 lead
in the series. And the manner in which Tendulkar was batting, it looked that
he needed only support from the other end to take India home. He did get that
support from the other end in the form of Suresh Raina, and the pair took India
almost at the doorstep of victory. India lost two wickets in a hurry, but in
the company of Ravindra Jadeja, India got to within 19 runs of the win
and had 18 balls in hand.
Tendulkar then played a shot that he will not forget for the rest of his life.
Almost akin to what Misbah-ul-Haq had played in the finals of the ICC World
T20, he tried to scoop the bowler, debutant Clint McKay over the short fine
leg fielder. He got a leading edge and only managed to dole out an easy catch
to be dismissed. The game was still India's to be taken, but Jadeja displayed
some utterly poor temperament to get run himself out and India fell three runs
short of the total.
The next game is at Guwahati on Sunday.
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