200*

They were waiting for this day... From January 5, 1971 and at last their dreams have become true in the 2961-st ODI match... Master strikes the first-ever ODI double ton at Gwalior.

After crossing 190 mark with 5 overs left, he just faced 9 balls to make this historical moment. They varied their bowling length from Helmet high short deliveries to Knee high full toss but all in vain. He just drove them out of the rope either touching the grass or flying in air. This time he has shown the youngsters how to play a one-day innings. Starting with 1-0 in 1 over, he made India reach 401-3 with 25 classic fours and 4 big sixes scoring 83 off the last 47 balls he faced. He got almost 60 percent of his runs from boundaries.

Two century partnerships, with Karthick and Dhoni, may look small when comparing to his score but played a vital role in making this record easy for him. He passed through Kapil Dev and then his own record, then through Kristen's 188, Jayasuriya's 189, Anwar's 194, Coventry's 194* and at the end reached 200 in the last over of the innings. Interesting fact about this record is that this is the same day when he made a 664 run partnership with Vinod Kambli which was a world record then.

New Records today:

1. Sachin - First man to hit a 200 in ODI cricket
2. Sachin - Top scorer of ODI cricket (200*)
3. Sachin - Most fours in an innings (25 fours)
4. Sachin - Most runs against South Africa (1859 runs)
5. India - Most 400 knocks (3 times)

Later in the match Indian bowlers didn't let the proteas to make the Historical 434 chase again. Pacers collapsed the top order. A B de Villiers lasted till the end with a consolidation century.

India retained its second position in One Day Internationals...

India Rocks...