Five lesser known records that Sachin Tendulkar holds in International cricket

Sachin Tendulkar kept breaking records throughout his International career of 24 years starting from his debut at the age of 16 only to move ahead of his competitors. Tendulkar broke many records during his marathon career starting from most runs to most appearances in Test cricket, ODI cricket and also in International cricket. But on the occasion of Sachin Tendulkar’s 45th birthday, we look five of his records which are less spoken but could remain with him forever.

Here are some of the interesting records that Sachin Tendulkar still holds in International cricket:

1. Youngest to score a Test century in three different countries:

Sachin Tendulkar scored as many as four centuries in Test cricket away from Asia before he scored his first 100 on the Indian soil. Those four centuries were scored in three different countries – England, Australia and South Africa. Interestingly, he is till date the youngest player to score a Test hundred in all the three countries.

He scored an unbeaten 119 at the age of 17 years and 107 days in the 4th innings of Manchester Test which was his maiden century for India. He scored 148* in Sydney at the age of 18 years and 253 days and followed it with a 114 in Perth against Australia. His 4th hundred came in Johannesburg at the age of 19 years and 216 days.

2. Most consecutive appearances for India:

Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for most consecutive appearances for any team in International cricket and also in the ODI format. Sachin featured in 239 straight matches that India played between 25th April 1990 and 24th April 1998. Tendulkar represented India in a total of 54 Tests and a record 185 ODI games in the span of eight years. His streak came to an end when he didn’t feature in the first two matches of the Triangular series at home. It was played soon after the famous Tri-Series in Sharjah, well known as Sachin’s desert storm.

3. Most Test centuries before turning 20:

By the time Tendulkar was a 20-year-old, he already scored five centuries in Test cricket. In the Indian Test history, no player other than Sachin scored a Test ton before turning 20. This meant that the top five youngest centuries in Test cricket for India were on the name of Tendulkar. In fact, no player other than Sachin scored more than two Test hundreds before turning 20. Five players have hit two centuries in the Test cricket before their 20th birthday.

4. Most runs in International cricket at ‘n’ years:

Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for most runs scored before turning ‘n‘ years starting from 19. He edged past Shahid Afridi to score the most runs in International cricket at 19th birthday from where his dominance carried on. Afridi holds the record for scoring the most runs across all the formats before 17th and 18th birthday while Hasan Raza has the most before turning 15 and 16.

5. Sachin – The bowler:

Tendulkar holds a unique distinction of defending six and fewer runs twice in the ODI format. He took the responsibility of defending six runs in the 50th over of the Hero Cup semi-final in 1993 against South Africa. Sachin gave away only three runs in the only over he bowled in the game as India qualified to the final with a 2-run win.

In the last league game of the 1996 Titan Cup match, Australia were 284/9 while chasing 290 to make it to the Final. Sachin’s job to defend six runs in the final over was made easy as Brad Hogg got run out on the very first ball of the over. India won both the tournaments after making it to the final with help of Sachin’s last over heroics.