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194-man Coventry says Sachin deserved 200 honour

Updated on: 24 February,2011 07:03 AM IST |
Harit N Joshi | sports@mid-day.com

It's exactly a year today since Sachin Tendulkar did the unimaginable. He became the first cricketer in the history to slam a double hundred in One Day Internationals. He remained unbeaten on 200 against South Africa in Gwalior

However, prior to Tendulkar, Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry was the joint record holder for the highest score in ODIs. He scored an unbeaten 194 against Bangladesh equaling Pakistan's Saeed Anwar's score against India.u00a0

Talking about his then historic knock, Coventry, a Daniel Vettori look-alike, said: "I was just playing my normal game and when I got to the hundred, we were behind the asking rate. So, I decided to hit a bit and luckily in the powerplay I got a lot of strike, which helped me score so much. It was really my day."

However, Coventry's 194 is still the record for highest ODI score, but in a losing cause. Bangladesh won that match by four wickets. "It was really disappointing. But that's how cricket is. It is your job to keep the motivation high. One has to keep playing their best always. One has to take the positives and move on with the game," said the right-hander.

Though Coventry enjoys watching Tendulkar, his inspiration is Virender Sehwag. "I enjoy watching Sachin, but my favourite is Virender Sehwag. Most of the cricketing world loves watching him play. It is good to see Viru even when you are playing against him," he signed off.

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