Sachin all set to cross 2,000 runs in World Cup

New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) Age and injuries might have taken a toll on Sachin Tendulkar's reputation as the best batsman in the world but when it come to the World Cup, the little master, just shy off 2000 runs in the quadrennial extravaganza, stands head and shoulders above them all.

On the grandest stage, Sachin proves himself the greatest scoring a whopping 1732 runs in 33 matches with a staggering average of 59.72 in the four World Cups he has played so far.

Former Pakistani great Javed Miandad is a distant second with 1083 runs in 33 matches with an average of 43.32.

Sri Lankan Arvinda D Silva (1064), West Indian Vivian Richards (1017) and Aussie Mark Waugh (1004) are the only other batsmen to have scored more than 1,000 runs in the competition.

Among the current lot, Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting is closest to Sachin having scored 998 runs in 28 matches with an average of 41.58 runs per innings.

West Indian skipper Brain Lara also makes his presence felt with 956 runs in 25 matches.

Vivian Richards, Aravinda de Silva and Ricky Ponting each have had the distinction of scoring a century in the final of an World Cup for a title-winning cause -- a constant reminder to Sachin that something is amiss despite his flattering statistics.

Sachin is also the leading centurian alongside Mark Waugh with both the batsmen scoring four tons apiece.

However, what above-mentioned statistics don't suggest is that Sachin also has three dismissals in the 90s off the 12 half-centuries to his credit.

Sir Viv (63.31) tops the averages for the World Cup while Sachin comes second in the list.

UNI