#ThisDayThatYear: Sachin Tendulkar reaches 15,000 runs in ODI cricket
On this day in 2007, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar became the first-ever batsman to score 15,000 runs in One-Day Internationals. The legend reached the historic landmark in the second ODI against South Africa at Belfast. Although he missed out on a hundred, Team India won the match by six wickets in a rather one-sided contest. Here is how the match panned out.
South Africa settled for 226/6 after 50 overs
The Proteas were in trouble straight up, after India put them to bat. Marquee players AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis departed early on, as the scoreboard read 7/2. However, Morne van Wyk's 126-ball 82 shifted the momentum to an extent. The likes of JP Duminy (40) and Mark Boucher (55*) later propelled them to 226/6 at the end of the innings.
India chased the total with five balls to spare
India's famous opening pair of Sourav Ganguly (42) and Sachin Tendulkar (93) together scored 134 for the first wicket. Middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh took the onus following their dismissal, having registered an unbeaten 49 off 63 balls. He was eventually joined by Dinesh Karthik (32*), who finished it off for India with five balls to spare.
History scripted by the Little Master
Tendulkar cleared yet another checkpoint in his international career as he touched the 15,000-run mark (ODI cricket). He reached the milestone by taking a single in the 18th over, which was bowled by Andre Nel. At that time, Sanath Jayasuriya was the next highest run-scorer with 12,063 runs. Notably, Sachin was also the first player in history to accumulate 10,000 ODI runs.
A look at Tendulkar's ODI career
Unsurprisingly, the Master Blaster finished his career as the leading run-scorer in the format. In his 24-year-old international career, Tendulkar racked up 18,426 runs from 463 ODIs He was also the first ever player to have slammed a double hundred in One-Day Internationals (200* vs SA, 2010). Furthermore, he holds the record of smashing most ODI tons (49), a feat yet to be reached.
Tendulkar ruled the format despite stumbling initially
Tendulkar did not have the desired results at the beginning of his ODI career. He scored only 2,126 runs in his first 78 games for India, at 32.70. Interestingly, Tendulkar's first ODI ton was recorded in his 79th ODI (110 vs AUS, 1994). However, following the particular innings at Colombo, Tendulkar looked unstoppable and later went on to slam hundred international tons.
