Tendulkar slams 154

Napier, Dec 9: Sachin Tendulkar lived up to his billing, slamming a superb 154 on the penultimate day of India's four-day cricket match a...

Napier, Dec 9: Sachin Tendulkar lived up to his billing, slamming a superb 154 on the penultimate day of India’s four-day cricket match against the Central Districts even though the tourists stand all but beaten in the tour opener.

The little magician’s swashbuckling 120-ball innings which included as many as three sixes and 20 fours, was applauded by the assembled audience as well as the home players, as India reached 390, setting a victory target of 158 for the hosts.

India began the day disastrously

as medium pacer David Blake removed Ajay Jadeja (39) and Navjot Sidhu (15) within 15 minutes of start of play and just four runs added to their overnight score of 54 for no loss.

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The situation worsened after Saurav Ganguly (16) and Mohammed Azharuddin (7) fell to off spinner Campbell Furlong.

India looked in real danger of going down by an innings when Rahul Dravid (46), who had mastered Furlong for a while, played one from medium pacer Michael Mason to behind the stumps to reduce the visitors to to 133for five.

Tendulkar then entered and reached 15 by lunch after being dropped down the legside off Mason.

On resumption, he reached 50 off 33 balls and continued in belligerent fashion to get his century off just 81 deliveries.

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Mongia’s departure started a slide and both Harbhajan Singh (13) and Venkatesh Prasad (7) were run out while Tendulkar, who once cleared Furlong down the long on fence, fell on a similar attempt on the offside of the very next delivery to a simple catch.

For the hosts, off spinner Furlong took four wickets for 177 runs. Needing 158 to win, Central Districts did not have things going their way in their second innings.

Opener Glen Milnes (8) and M Sinclair (8) were out to Venkatesh Prasad’s deliveries, but Craig Spearman (batting 47) and Jarrod Englefield (batting 16) stayed put to raise visions of an impressive win tomorrow.

Tendulkar said though the wicket had become even faster during the latter part of the day, “I batted the way I usually bat and there was no hinderancein terms of my listlessness of the previous day.”

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Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad was pleased with the much improved performance. “We are getting used to the conditions.”

SCOREBOARD

India (1st innings): 103

Central Districts (1st innings): 336

India (2nd innings, overnight 54-0): A Jadeja b Blake 39, N Sidhu b Blake 15, R Dravid c Sigley b Mason 46, S Ganguly c Oram b Furlong 16, M Azharuddin c Milnes b Furlong 7, N Mongia c Englefield b Furlong 79, S Tendulkar c Oram b Furlong 154, H Singh run out 13, V Prasad run out 7, D Mohanty c Sigley b Mason 6, R Singh not out 0. Extras : 8

Total: 390

Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-58, 3-91, 4-103, 5-133, 6-334, 7-359, 8-377, 9-385.

Bowling: Penn 20-5-70-0, Blake 12-1-56-2, Furlong 24-1-177-4, Mason 16-3-55-2, Oram 7-1-22-0, Englefield 1-0-4-0.

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Central Districts (2nd innings): G Milnes c Tendulkar b Prasad 0, C Spearman not out 47, M Sinclair b Prasad 8, J Englefield not out 14. Extras : 4. Total (21 overs): 73

Fall ofwickets: 1-0, 2-31.

Bowling: Prasad 7-2-20-2, Mohanty 10-2-34-0, R Singh (Jr) 2-0-12-0, H Singh 2-0-7-0.