On This Day of That Year: Sachin Tendulkar hits first ever double ton in ODI

By: Yasser Ayaz  

Tweets at @yasser95697306

On 24 February 2010, Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer to hit double hundred in One Day International(ODI) Cricket.

Against whom?

It was against South Africa. In 2nd ODI (D/N) at Gwalior, India won the toss and elected to bat first. With that marvelous batting performance, India was able to put a huge total of 401 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. South Africa only managed to score 248 runs in 42.5 overs and India won that match by 153 runs.

Batting Analysis:

The speed of Tendulkar’s innings was breathtaking. He faced just 147 balls hitting 25 fours and three sixes. His strike rate of 136.05 was higher than any of the other innings on the list of top ten scores one-day international scores.

What did Sachin Tendulkar say about the knock?

There was no doubt who will be the Man Of The Match(MoM). After receiving the MoM, he expressed his happiness and dedicated his knock to people of India.

"I don’t know how to react. I’d like to dedicate this double-hundred to the people of India for standing behind me for the last 20 years throughout the ups and downs. I felt that when I was 175-plus and it was the 42nd over I had a chance, but I wasn’t actually thinking of it. It was only when I got closer to it that I thought about a double hundred” said Tendulkar.

Cricket has changed, so has its rules; number of double hundreds has gone up to 5, however, the first double ton still lingers on the minds of cricket lovers.

BCCI also tweeted about this day of that year.

#ThisDay in 2010 the great @sachin_rt became the first batsman to score a double ton in ODI cricket.

He faced 147 balls and scored the first double century with 25 fours and 3 sixes against South Africa at Gwalior #Legend. pic.twitter.com/cwb0TRA9TT

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 24, 2018