When Sachin Tendulkar scored a double century against South Africa at Gwalior on 24th February 2010, millions of cricket lovers knew that Sachin Tendulkar was the first to achieve the extraordinary feat.  However Sachin Tendulkar has had many other firsts to his credit which many would have forgotten during an glorious career when Sachin Tendulkar  went  on a record breaking  spree breaking one record after another that many of his records were forgotten.

Here is a list of Sachin's major Firsts prior to his epic 200 at Gwalior:-

Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman in the world to reach the five figure mark (10,000 runs) in the history of one dayers.

Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman in the world to achieve the double of 10,000 runs in both forms of the game i.e. Tests and One Dayers.

Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman to socre 50 international hundreds i.e. Tests and One Dayers.  Sachin is also the first to achieve the double of 25 hundreds each in Tests and One Dayers.

Sachin Tendulkar is the first all rounder to score 10,000 runs and take 100 wickets in the history of one dyaers.

When Sachin Tendulkar scored 523 runs in 1996 World Cup, he became the first batsman in the history of one dayers to score more than 500 runs in a single World Cup.

The Firsts achieved by Sachin Tendulkar after his double century at Gwalior.

Sachin Tendulkar is the only batsman to get a double century in both forms of the game i.e. Tests and One Dayers.

Sachin Tendulkar is the first and only all rounder to have a five wicket haul and a double century to his name in one dayers. It must be remembered that taking five wickets in an innings is difficult even for a specialist bowler in the shorter version of game and therefore Sachin's achievement is even greater.

Sachin during the course of his unbeaten 200 against South Africa at Gwalior belted 25 overs apart from 3 huge sixes.  Sachin is the only batsman to score 25 boundaries in a one dayer.

Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman to score 150 or more in a innings on five occassions.

Sachin Tendulkar is also the first and only batsman to score 175 or more on three occassions.

Apart from the several firsts listed above, Sachin's second 100 of the innings i.e. 100 to 200 came of a mere 57 balls.  Sachin's 57 ball second hundred makes it the fastest by an Indian breaking Sehwag's record of 100 in 60 deliveries against New Zealand at Hamilton on 11th March 2009. Only Shahid Afridi, Mark Boucher, Brian Lara and Sanath Jayasurya have got hundreds in lesser than 57 deliveries.

Sachin is the only player to get a century of runs in fours alone.  The 25 boundaries scored by him totals to 100 runs.

Sachin is the first person to bat through the entire 50 overs (though he faced only 147 deliveries) while scoring a double century.  Not many may get to that honour in future because the batsmen has to be an opener, his team should win the toss and bat first and he has also to remain not out at the end of the innings.

Records are meant to be broken and while Sachins records too may be broken with the passge of time, the fact that he was first to reach major cricketing milestones like 10000 runs in one dayers and a first ever double century in one dayers will be remembered forever even after hundreds of years.