Most runs in a calendar year across all formats

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Mathews was simply sensational in 2014

When you think of most runs, the first name that comes to everyone's mind is Sachin Tendulkar. While the Indian batsman does hold the record for the most runs in Tests and ODIs, he doesn't hold the record for most runs in a calendar year across all formats. In fact, not only does he not hold the world record, he doesn't even feature in the top ten.

The tally of 2,500 runs in a calendar year has only been crossed 13 times in the history of cricket. Only three players have managed to cross that tally twice. Ricky Ponting was the first to achieve that. Kumar Sangakkara was second and Virat Kohli just became the third player to do it.

Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kane Williamson, Angelo Mathews and Joe Root have done it once. But who among them features in the top five?

Here are the top five players with the most runs in a calendar year across all formats:

#5 Angelo Mathews - 2,687 runs

Occupying fifth place is Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews, courtesy of his record-breaking year in 2014. Consistently delivering across the 53 matches that he played across all formats, Mathews showed that while he might be an all-rounder, he is still one of the finest batsmen to emerge from the island nation.

In 53 matches, the all-rounder finished with 2,687 runs at an average of 65.53. Despite scoring a mountain of runs, he could only manage four centuries in the calendar year, although he did have 17 fifties to his name.

Far too often, he was putting out fires and while many of them were successful, he didn't always get the chance to get a big score on the board for himself. Evident from the fact that his highest score in 2014 was only 160 but he did finish unbeaten 18 times, which is the most for any batsman with more than 2,000 runs in a calendar year.

Despite all of his efforts, not only was Mathews not even the highest run scorer in the calendar year, but not even the highest run-getter in his side in 2014 as his teammate broke the world record in that year.

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