February 24, 2010. Sachin Tendulkar pushed the third ball of the final over of India's innings past point and ran the single. Gwalior erupted. So did India. So did the cricket playing world.

The ODI format was reputed to be a young man’s game. Yet, for close to four decades, none of the lads who struck the ball with their youthful vigour and scampered between the wickets on their energetic feet had been able to accomplish the feat.

In 1997, Saeed Anwar had battled heat and cramps to get within a stroke of two hundred, most of the innings helped along by a runner. In 2009, Charles Coventry had feasted on a dismal Bangladesh attack to equal the effort. The top score in ODIs stood at 194.

It was left to the Indian genius, two months shy of his 37th birthday, to reach the milestone. It took him 147 balls. The first-ever double hundred in the history of ODIs had arrived on the shoulders of the great, running the last lap of his career.

And then there followed the standard heavenward look with hands reaching for the sky — the gesture of a champion who had conquered a peak that did not even exist when he had started out on his journey.

Text: Arunabha Sengupta

Illustration: Maha