Alright folks, been meaning to dig into India’s ODI batting giants properly for ages. Woke up today thinking “Right, today’s the day,” and grabbed my laptop straight after breakfast.
Where I Even Started
First thing, I opened my go-to cricket stats site. Man, it’s messy. Searched for “India ODI batting records,” and boom – dozens of pages popped up. Had to scratch my head figuring out which one actually listed everyone properly, not just the recent stars. Clicked through about five different links feeling kinda lost.
The Real Grind Begins
Finally found a decent table layout. Thought “Easy peasy, just copy-paste into my spreadsheet,” right? Nope. Copying that mess pasted everything sideways. Total headache. Took me a solid hour just to wrestle names, runs, and years into neat columns. My shoulders were screaming!
Then spotted the duplicates – three different entries for ‘Tendulkar, S.R.’! Merged those manually, almost threw my coffee when I saw Kohli already breathing down his neck. Next hurdle? Figuring out retired players versus current ones. Had to cross-check retirements one by one, eyes practically glazing over.
- Spreadsheet Woes: Sorting by runs kept resetting when I added new columns. Agggh!
- The Tendulkar/Kohli Thing: Seeing just how close Virat is… gave me chills man. Didn’t realize it was that tight.
- That “Aha!” Moment: Ganguly tucked way higher than I remembered. Forgot how consistent he was back in the day.
Fingers were sticky from snacking when the boss pinged me for some “urgent” task. Seriously? Right when I finally saw the top 10 shaping up! Had to step away frustrated.
Why Bother Doing This Myself?
See, anyone can glance at a pre-made list. But wrestling with the raw data? That’s where you feel the numbers. You feel the weight of Sachin’s mountain of runs. You see Dhoni’s insane average sneaking into the top. You appreciate Rahul Dravid grinding it out despite everyone talking about the flashy guys. Makes it real, not just names on a screen.
Honestly, life feels a bit like that spreadsheet sometimes – messy columns, duplicates popping up where you don’t expect them, and needing to just sort things out manually instead of trusting someone else’s sort order. Ended my day exhausted but satisfied, staring at that top ten list I built myself. Messy process, clean result. Worth every minute of hassle.
