'400 just happens to be a number' - Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar endured a prickly moment on the eve of his 400th one-day international when a television journalist asked him if his career had more lows than highs. "Go and check up the records," he shot back. "I think you are watching a different game." And Tendulkar, of course, is right.

His has been a career of consistent overachievement, from the age of 16. In fact, if anything, it's hard to keep track of the records set and broken, and the milestones reached. Tendulkar is the second cricketer, after Sanath Jayasuriya, to play 400 ODIs.

"For Sachin every day is a big day," said Murali Kartik in the lead-up to the fifth ODI at Vadodara. "We're all playing for India so each day is a big one. He's achieved so many milestones that playing the 400th one-dayer is a small dot in his list of achievements."

Tendulkar, for his part, chose to play down the milestone. "I am feeling good that it's my 400th one-dayer but for me it's just going to be another match; that's how I look at it. My approach will be the same as for any other normal one-day match."

The team is likely to have a small, private celebration to mark the milestone, but the first thought is on winning the forthcoming match and keeping the series alive. "Always the effort will be to score runs and contribute in the team's win. It won't be any different this time and any batsman who walks into bat will be thinking on the same lines," said Tendulkar. "Yes, I have scored runs on this ground and it's been good to me. So I am hoping to do well again and contribute to the team's success."

Scanning the list of 399 ODIs that he has played till now, Tendulkar picked out a few moments that stuck in his memory. "There have been lots of one-dayers that have been quite memorable. Like the Hero Cup semi-final against South Africa in 1993 when I bowled the last over. That's very strong in my memory. Then there were matches in Sharjah and the World Cup (2003) match against Pakistan. There have been quite a few like this and it's been a wonderful experience."

When asked if it was particularly memorable that the 400th game came against Australia, the world champions, Tendulkar again chose not to dwell on the issue too much. "400 just happens to be a number and just coincidence that it happens to be against Australia. It could have been against any other country. I treat all the games in the same way and my preparations are the same. For me it's just another match. It will be a competitive series and we have prepared well for it and just hope to well execute whatever our plans are tomorrow."