Digging Up ODI Cricket Stats – What a Headache!
Got obsessed yesterday with India’s top ODI run scorers after watching that Kohli highlights reel. Thought “how hard could it be to find the full list?” Spoiler: way harder than smashing sixes at Wankhede.
First tried googling “India players most ODI runs” expecting instant answers. Big mistake! Different sites showed conflicting numbers – one had Rohit at 12k runs while another showed 12,400. Wasted 20 minutes switching between ten different cricket websites getting dizzy.
My Clunky Spreadsheet Solution
Dusted off my rusty Excel skills and made this super ugly spreadsheet:
- Column A for player names (kept spelling Tendulkar wrong)
- Column B for total runs (typed Kohli’s runs wrong three times)
- Column C for highest score (got confused between Dhoni’s 183 vs 184)
Realized halfway my list had only current players. Panic-scrolls through cricket archives felt like fielding blindfolded. Found archived scorecards where Ganguly’s runs were scattered across formats – wanted to scream!
That Lightbulb Moment
Almost threw laptop when noticing my sheet had Dravid listed below Raina (criminal!). Remembered ESPN’s stats section by accident. Spent another hour cross-checking each player like CSI:
- Opened Tendulkar’s career page first (obviously)
- Manually copied his 18,426 runs (yes I typed the commas)
- Did same for Kohli, Dhoni, Ganguly…
Changed my column headers five times trying to look fancy – ended up with basic “Player Runs High Score Average”. Felt proud seeing all-time greats lined up properly in my janky sheet.
The Final Tally Drama
Triple-checked everything. Of course found mistakes – turns out I gave Kohli 12,897 runs when it’s actually 13,000-something. Fixed it while muttering “chtiya error” at least seven times. Finally had the definitive list:
Top India ODI Scorers:
- Sachin goddamn Tendulkar on top (18k+ runs!)
- Virat breathing down his neck
- Ganguly steady at third
- Rohit climbing fast
- MSD lurking like he does behind stumps
Sharing this mess online now hoping it saves someone else three hours of hair-pulling. Moral? Even stat-compiling needs more patience than Jadeja’s bowling spell!
