UNI

New Delhi, Feb 19:  Age and injuries might have taken a toll on Sachin Tendulkar’s reputation as the best batsman in the world but when it comes to the World Cup, the little master, just shy of 2,000 runs in the quadrennial extravaganza, stands head and shoulders above all.

On the grandest stage, Sachin proves himself the greatest, scoring a whopping 1,732 runs in 33 matches with a staggering average of 59.72 in the four World Cups he has played so far.

Former Pakistan great Javed Miandad is a distant second with 1,083 runs in 33 matches at 43.32.

Sri Lankan Aravinda de Silva (1,064), West Indian Vivian Richards (1,017) and Aussie Mark Waugh (1,004) are the only other batsmen to have scored over 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 Indies skipper Brian 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 a 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 scoring four tons apiece.

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

Sir Viv (63.31) tops the averages for the World Cup, while Sachin is second on the list.