SACHIN MISSES IT - WAIT FOR FIRST DOUBLE CENTURION IN ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS ON

On a hot and an extremely humid August afternoon, ahead of the third and final Test match between India and Sri Lanka at the P Sara Oval stadium in Colombo last year, I made an unsuccessful attempt of hurling a bouncer at Indian opener Virender Sehwag. "This is such a small ground, you will definitely relish batting here...," I asked the man who was in a different zone altogether after having scored a double ton at Galle a few days ago. "It's no different," he replied sheepishly, "the small boundary - square off the wicket - won't make much difference."
It's no secret that Sehwag cares a damn about small grounds, short boundaries. But, I am sure the sight of boundary rope lying far away from the advertising hoardings, well into the ground, definitely gives a nightmare to the bowlers. "I tell you it's like being hanged to death," said pacer Ishant Sharma recently when asked about the bashing bowlers get in Twenty20 cricket. Ishant was saying it in jest but his concerns were genuine.
Twenty20, and to some extent even the one-day internationals, are becoming death knell for even the most economical bowlers - where even a street kid fancies his chance of hitting them over the ropes. Who would've thought that the Indians will score a mammoth 392/4 vs New Zealand in New Zealand. Most of the grounds in New Zealand are small but never in the history of the game in that country any time had managed that kind of total in an international game.
With the Kiwis also going past 300 in their unsuccessful run chase, as many as 726 runs were scored in the Christchurch ODI - the second highest run aggregate in the history of ODIs. Mind you this happened in New Zealand which has a reputation of producing bowler-friendly tracks. Surely, it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat for the handful of spectators present at the AMI Stadium but this was one one-dayer which the bowlers from both the sides would love to forget.
I called it a once-in-a-lifetime treat but I think I will take my words back... With the kind of totals being notched up by teams these days, the day is not far when a batsman would score an ODI double century and a team would cross the 500-run barrier. Talking about the ODI double century, Sachin Tendulkar (who got 163 runs in the Christchurch ODI) said that he had his eyes firmly set on 200 before retiring hurt.
Well, whosoever becomes the first double-centurion in ODI cricket, the wait isn't going to be long.