Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar wants all his batting records to be broken by Indians. The Master Blaster missed witnessing Virat Kohli equal his world record of 49 ODI hundreds as the latter fell short of the milestone by 12 runs in Match 33 of the ICC World Cup 2023 in Mumbai on Thursday.
Tendulkar, who is the brand ambassador of this World Cup, came to cheer for Team India along with former Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan at the Wankhede Stadium.
Kohli was dismissed on 88 by Dilshan Madushanka in the 32nd over of India's innings which silenced the majority Indian crowd at the venue.
Even Kohli was dejected to miss out equalling Tendulkar's record but his knock as he was seen ruing his dismissal in the dressing room. Kohli has already scored two hundreds in this World Cup and was looking good for another triple-digit score but fell against the run of play.
But Tendulkar is happy with the fact that an Indian cricketer has the chance to match his record and even overhaul it in ODI cricket.
"The 49 ODI hundreds record is not my record, it's India's record. As long as it stays with India, I am happy," Tendulkar said at the mid-innings break.
Gill, Kohli & Iyer help India cross 350
Notably, Kohli broke Tendulkar's record for scoring over 1000 runs for the most number of times in a calendar year during his knock against the Lankans.
Tendulkar had managed it seven times during his ODI career but saw Kohli overtake him during his 94-ball innings which included 11 fours.
Kohli, Shubman Gill (92) and Shreyas Iyer (82) scored swashbuckling fifties to help India post a mammoth 357 for 8 in 50 overs after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first.
A win for India will make them the first team to qualify for the semi-finals and knock out Sri Lanka from the tournament.
