By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
IANS
Dhaka : Virender Sehwag Thursday became the sixth Indian batsman to complete 5,000 runs in One-day International cricket when he scored 30 against Bangladesh in the first match of the series here.
Sachin Tendulkar leads the pack with 14,847 runs – this is also a world record – while Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja have also scored over 5,000 runs.
Sehwag, who was three short of 5,000, when he went into bat at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, took his aggregate to 5,027 in 171 matches at an average of 31.61 at the end of his innings.
The hard-hitting batsman from Delhi, who made his debut against Pakistan in Mohali in 1999, has also hammered eight centuries, including one against Bermuda in the World Cup recently, and 24 half-centuries.
Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful played his 100th match Thursday. He became the fourth Bangladeshi to cross the landmark after former captain and wicket keeper Khaled Mashud (126 matches), Mohammed Rafique (121) and current captain Habibul Bashar (110).
Ashraful, however, failed to make it a memorable outing as he was out for 29.
After making his debut against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in 2001, he has so far hit one century and 11 half-centuries.
India wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also completed 2,000 runs in this abridged version of the game.