Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Whaddaplayaaaaa! Incredible, there are almost no words to describe his innings of 200* today, but I imagine I'll have a go at waffling a few hundred myself.

The groundsmen said before the match today that this was a 300+ pitch, and he wasn't wrong, but I wonder if he expected India to post 401, with 50% of them coming from one Little Master? Half of the total scored by one man who faced less than half the balls in the entire innings. Unbelievable.

I haven't seen the innings yet, and thanks to the entirety of India logging on to Cricinfo, I very nearly missed the moment he went to 200 as well, but from what I've read and looking at the numbers from the innings, it was out of this world. Just three sixes in an innings of 200 from 147 balls is remarkable - the previous record of 194 held by Saeed Anwar and Charles Coventry contained five and seven sixes respectively.

Tendulkar has never been a power hitter, he carresses the ball and he was clearly at his carressing best throughout today's knock. It is somehow appropriate that the man some would argue, myself included, that the greatest batsman of the last 30 years (at least) should have become the first man to breach the 200 mark in One Day Internationals.

There is simply no one to touch him in this format: 17,500 runs, 46 hundreds, 93 fifties, nearly 2,000 fours and 134 sixes, an average of 45 at a strike rate of 86 from an incredible 442 matches - and the small matter of 154 wickets before injury stopped him from bowling his leggies or whatever they were.

I was absolutely gutted when Sachin got out for just one in the only match I've seen him play - England v India at the Oval in 2007, I also then had to sit through Rahul Dravid set the world record for the slowest 12 in test history (96 balls in case you're interested).

He is truly one of the greats of the game, regardless of the format, but today cements his place in history as the first man to score 200 runs in a One Day International, and that will never be taken away from him.