On December 8 in 2011, Virender Sehwag smashed 219 from 149 balls against West Indies in Indore to break the then record for the highest One-Day International individual score, eclipsing batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 200 scored against South Africa in Gwalior a year before that.
Sehwag, then 33, was in fine form and smashed seven sixes and 25 fours as India posted a total of 418 for five.
Fortune too favoured the aggressive batsman as Windies captain Darren Sammy dropped him on 170.
“I was playing my shots throughout the innings, but I started thinking about 200 in the batting powerplay, and when Sammy dropped the catch I thought ‘God is with me’,” Sehwag had said in the aftermath of the feat.
“I was cheering for Sachin when he got his double hundred and it’s great to break his record,” he said after the match. “I think everyone was expecting me to get 200 but I was not expecting it.”
He broke Tendulkar’s record in the 44th over with a boundary through point.
The opener was finally dismissed in the 47th over after being caught out trying to further extend India’s score.
It was the right-hander’s 15th one-day international century and during his innings he also passed 8,000 ODI runs.
India dismissed the visitors for 265 to win by 153 runs and clinch the series.
Sehwag’s feat has since been bettered by New Zealand’s Martin Guptil, who scored 237 against the West Indies in March 2015 and compatriot Rohit Sharma, who heads the chart with his 264, scored against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in 2014.