On this day 13 years ago, India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar achieved the unthinkable by becoming the first-ever cricketer to cross the 30,000 run mark in international cricket. Tendulkar reached the milestone during the first Test match of the three-match series during Sri Lanka’s tour of India in 2009 in Ahmadabad.
Tendulkar recorded the feat during the fifth day of the match. He walked to bat at number five during India’s second innings following the dismissal of nightwatchman Amit Mishra from the attack.
At the time, India was in a bit of a sticky spot despite scoring 209 runs for the loss of three wickets as they were still trailing Sri Lanka by a huge margin. Tendulkar snitched a 66-run stand with Gautam Gambhir for the fourth wicket and put the match on course for a draw. Ace Sri Lankan bowler Rangana Herath broke Gambhir and Tendulkar’s partnership by removing the Delhi cricketer from the attack.
Following Gambhir’s dismissal, VVS Laxman joined Tendulkar at the crease and just ten overs after that cricket enthusiasts across the globe witnessed a very special moment.
In the 89th over of the innings and 44th over of the day, Tendulkar clipped an inswinger from left-arm Sri Lanka pacer Chanaka Welegedara to deep square leg for a single to score his 35th run of the innings and 30,000 runs in international cricket.
Tendulkar was the first cricketer to touch the 30,000 international run mark and even today, 12 years after he achieved this feat, he remains alone in the elusive list.
Former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara came closest to touching the 30k mark but was not able to do so. Sangakkara scored 28,016 runs from 594 international matches. Tendulkar went on to score unbeaten 100 runs off 211 balls in the match.
Tendulkar bid adieu to international cricket in 2013 with 34357 runs under his belt from 664 international matches.
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