Sachin Tendulkar Scored 100 International Centuries, Made the First Men's ODI Double Century at Gwalior on 24 February 2010 and Played 200 Tests for 15,921 Runs

Sachin Tendulkar scored 100 international centuries, 51 in Tests and 49 in one-day internationals (ODIs), and was the first player to reach that number. On 6 November 2026 the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame page also listed him as the first player to play 200 Tests, the first to score 200 in a men’s ODI, and the leading run scorer in both Tests (15,921 runs) and ODIs (18,426), across 664 international matches between 1989 and 2013.

The career in numbers

ESPNcricinfo’s career table, read the same day, gives a Test record of 200 matches, 329 innings and 33 not-outs, with 15,921 runs at an average of 53.78, 51 hundreds, 68 fifties and a highest score of 248 not out. In ODIs the line is 463 matches and 452 innings for 18,426 runs at 44.83, with 49 hundreds, 96 fifties and a best of 200 not out. One Twenty20 international added 10 runs. Together the three formats make 34,357 international runs, the total on the ICC’s page.

Bowling was a sideline that paid: 46 Test wickets and 154 in ODIs, mixing off-spin and leg-spin, with best ODI figures of 5 for 32. Britannica says he was often called on late in an innings to break a stand, and that he took three wickets in the second innings of the 2001 Test against Australia at Eden Gardens, the match told in Laxman’s 281 and Dravid’s 180.

As of July 2025, Britannica puts him first on the list of most Tests played, with 200, ahead of James Anderson’s 188.

Karachi, November 1989

Born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 24 April 1973, Tendulkar made his Test debut against Pakistan at Karachi, in a match that began on 15 November 1989. He was 16 years and 205 days old, which Britannica records as the youngest debut by an Indian Test cricketer.

The scorecard has him at No. 6, making 15 from 24 balls with two fours before Waqar Younis bowled him. Pakistan scored 409 and 305 for 5 declared, India 262 and 303 for 3 in a chase of 453, and the match was drawn, with Kapil Dev named Player of the Match.

Later in that series he was hit in the face, by a short ball in the fourth Test in Britannica’s account, and carried on batting, a point on which ESPNcricinfo agrees. Britannica adds that his first Test half-century came in the second match.

A first Test hundred followed against England in 1990. ESPNcricinfo calls it a match-saving innings at Old Trafford, played at 17, and Britannica says it made him the youngest Indian to score a Test century. In 1991 and 1992 came 148 at Sydney and 114 at Perth, according to Britannica, and ESPNcricinfo’s profile ranks the hundred on the fast WACA pitch among the best innings played in Australia. That profile also says he had 16 Test hundreds before he turned 25.

One-day cricket came later. Britannica says he moved up to open the batting in early 1994 and scored his first ODI hundred that year, and ESPNcricinfo puts it in his 79th ODI. ESPNcricinfo adds that in 2000 he became the first batter with 50 international hundreds, and both sources have him passing Brian Lara as the leading Test run scorer in 2008.

200 not out at Gwalior

The first men’s ODI double century came on 24 February 2010, in the second ODI against South Africa at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior. India chose to bat in the day-night match, and Virender Sehwag was out for 9 with the score at 25 in the fourth over.

Tendulkar finished unbeaten on 200 from 147 balls, with 25 fours and 3 sixes, at a strike rate of 136.05. The match flow on ESPNcricinfo records his fifty from 37 balls, his hundred from 90, his 150 from 118 and the 200 from 147. According to the Associated Press, the previous highest ODI score was 194, made by Saeed Anwar of Pakistan against India at Chennai in May 1997 and equalled by Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe against Bangladesh at Bulawayo in August 2009. Tendulkar’s own best before that day was 186 not out against New Zealand at Hyderabad in November 1999.

Dinesh Karthik made 79 and was out at 219, so the second wicket added 194. MS Dhoni then scored 68 not out from 35 balls, and India finished on 401 for 3 in 50 overs. South Africa were bowled out for 248 in 42.5 overs, AB de Villiers unbeaten on 114 from 101 balls, and India won by 153 runs, with Tendulkar named Player of the Match. ESPNcricinfo’s profile points out that he was just under 37.

The ICC named him its Cricketer of the Year for 2010, Britannica says, for a period in which he scored more than 1,000 Test runs as well as the double century.

2011 and the hundredth hundred

In the ICC’s account, 2011 was the year Tendulkar finally won his first World Cup, finishing at 37 as India’s leading run scorer in the tournament. India’s earlier title, in 1983, is covered in the account of Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 and the Lord’s final.

His 99th international hundred, 111 against South Africa at Nagpur, came in that tournament on 12 March 2011, the AP and Britannica both say. The 100th followed on Friday, 16 March 2012, in an Asia Cup match against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.

He made 114 from 147 balls, with 12 fours and a six, and reached 50 from 63 balls. AP reports that the hundred came with a clipped single to square leg off the spinner Shakib Al Hasan. Virat Kohli scored 66 and Suresh Raina 51 from 38 balls, India made 289 for 5, and the wicketkeeper caught Tendulkar off Mashrafe Mortaza in the 47th over. Bangladesh replied with 293 for 5 and won with four balls left, Shakib being named Player of the Match for 49 from 31 balls.

Afterwards Tendulkar told a television channel, as AP quotes him: “It does not matter how many hundreds you score, you still have to grind it out.” ESPNcricinfo says he announced his retirement from ODIs later that year.

The 200th Test at the Wankhede

His 200th Test, and his last, began on 14 November 2013 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, against West Indies, and ended on 16 November. Tendulkar scored 74 from 118 balls with 12 fours, and Daren Sammy caught him off Narsingh Deonarine.

India made 495, Cheteshwar Pujara scoring 113 and Rohit Sharma 111 not out. West Indies were bowled out for 182 and 187, and India won by an innings and 126 runs, with Pragyan Ojha’s 5 for 40 and 5 for 49 earning him Player of the Match.

Honours

The Gazette of India lists Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (Sports, Cricket, Mumbai, Maharashtra) among the Padma Shri awards announced on 26 January 1999, and under Padma Vibhushan in its notification of 5 May 2008. Britannica adds the Arjuna Award in 1994 and the Khel Ratna, the top sports award, for the 1997 to 1998 season.

The Bharat Ratna was announced for him and for the scientist C. N. R. Rao on 16 November 2013, the day he retired, the BCCI reports. At his farewell news conference he dedicated it to his mother and to “all mothers of India.” President Pranab Mukherjee presented the award at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 4 February 2014, the President’s Secretariat records. The BCCI and Britannica both describe Tendulkar as the first sportsperson to receive it, and the BCCI adds that at 40 he was its youngest recipient.

He was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2019. In June 2025, Britannica records, the ICC announced the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy for the England and India Test series, named for him and James Anderson.

Where the figures differ

A reader who adds only the two main formats gets 34,347, ten short of the 34,357 total. The missing 10 runs are his one T20 international, and the ICC and Gulf News both print the larger figure.

Accounts of the wait for the 100th hundred also differ. AP says he was stranded for a full year, while Britannica counts 33 innings between the 99th and the 100th, with public scrutiny growing as it dragged on.

The ICC words the double century as the first in a men’s ODI and Britannica as the first by a male cricketer, whereas the AP report on the day calls it the first in the format.

Britannica gives his record as captain, over spells that ended in 2000, as a win percentage of 31 in ODIs and 16 in Tests.