The Hindu : Sport : Tendulkar captivates the Adelaide crowd with an unconquered century

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Tendulkar captivates the Adelaide crowd with an unconquered century

S. Ram Mahesh

Virender Sehwag and V.V.S. Laxman score entertaining half-centuries

— PHOTO: AFP

A CLASS APART: Sachin Tendulkar scored his 39th Test century to put India in a good position in Adelaide on Thursday.

Adelaide: Sachin Tendulkar’s 39th century in what will probably be his final Test appearance in Australia captivated the 20,000 that came to the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

Pertinently, his masterly, unconquered 124 — and the fifth-wicket stand of 126 in 31.3 overs with V.V.S. Laxman (51) — allowed India to end the first day of the all-important fourth Test on 309 for five.

Neither side will claim the day, but it has set up a morning session of promise and consequence: Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni (dropped already by Matthew Hayden on 3) will start Friday against the second new ball. The session could drive the fourth Test.

Good start

Earlier, Virender Sehwag got India off to just the start Anil Kumble would have fancied after winning the toss. Sehwag sliced Brett Lee past point and guided Mitchell Johnson behind gully to provoke changes in the field. The third slip came out; predictably, an edge flew through there.

Irfan Pathan, shifted up the order to accommodate Harbhajan Singh, shaped well, turning Johnson to square-leg and shading Lee to third-man. But, there was a touch of swing for both opening bowlers on a sticky Thursday morning. Johnson got one to leave Pathan, more on the strength of his round-armed action than his wrist, to persuade bat away from body.

Rahul Dravid, whose 233 here in 2003 has been painted into the steps leading up the Members’ pavilion, looked in fine touch as he started. Crisp strides carried him into positions of balance. From here, he either left deliveries unsolicited — bat lifted high as a baby out of the bath-water — or patted them into gaps.

Sehwag called Dravid through for a couple of hard-run threes to third-man, and with the odd sharp single stolen, India was building nicely. But, Australia, after conceding seven boundaries in the first hour, slipped on the iron collar in the second, borrowing from Melbourne’s strategy of denial.

Ricky Ponting achieved control in two ways: Stuart Clark bowled a tight line around the off-stump with a waiting short mid-wicket; Johnson slanted it across the right-hander at high pace just short of driving length.

Sehwag merited a deep point and a thin slip cordon. Dravid, who was finding the lefty angle difficult to score from, had men in his peripheral vision. Having survived a close appeal for leg-before — twin noises neither of which was bat on ball saving him — Dravid fell to Johnson.

The left-armer cranked one across Dravid at 147 kmph, seeking the vulnerable outer half of the blade. Ponting completed the deal at second slip.

Exquisite drives

Sehwag continued to take the free single to deep point, even as Tendulkar spent 18 balls scoreless. Then, as if compelled by the beauty of his surroundings — the brownstone cathedral, the cream-and-red Bradman stand, the swooping gulls, the antique scoreboard — Tendulkar unveiled three classical drives. The first, which got him off the mark, was the one from legend: the checked back-drive against Lee. Then, by pulling his leading shoulder to the right, to stay in step with the left leg, he reprised the stroke off Johnson, directing it wider. The coup de grace was the cover drive, the instant of contact delayed till after the ball had passed the front pad. This on a strip that wasn’t letting the ball come on.

Sehwag’s controlled 63 ended when he flashed at Lee without shifting his back-foot to compensate for the width and leg-cut. Hayden, returning to first slip, took the thick, fast edge superbly. With Sourav Ganguly sweeping carelessly to be adjudged leg-before off Brad Hogg (the fourth time this series the left-arm wrist-spinner has conned his man), India slipped to 156 for four.

Tendulkar and Laxman steered India through the crucial phase. Tendulkar’s innings hit a period where he gathered runs behind the wicket through glides and lap-sweeps, all but excluding the drive. Business picked up, however, as he neared his hundred. He chipped down the track to Hogg and Clarke hitting them with the wind into the tree-lined far end for six — hefty blows that travelled well over a 100 yards.

Tendulkar drove Clarke inside-out past a diving mid-off to reach three figures. Laxman, dropped on 37 by Adam Gilchrist off Lee, pulled Hogg for four as he went to another half-century against Australia; his stroke of the day had come earlier — a virtuoso late cut off Lee.

But, Australia’s blond opening bowler had Laxman turning away from a short ball that didn’t climb as expected. The ball lobbed off Laxman’s gloves to Gilchrist.

SCOREBOARD

India — 1st innings: V. Sehwag c Hayden b Lee 63, I. Pathan c Gilchrist b Johnson 9, R. Dravid c Ponting b Johnson 18, S. Tendulkar (batting) 124, S. Ganguly lbw b Hogg 7, V.V.S. Laxman c Gilchrist b Lee 51, M.S. Dhoni (batting) 6, Extras (b-8, lb-15, nb-7, w-1) 31; Total (for five wkts. in 86 overs) 309.

Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Pathan), 2-82 (Dravid), 3-122 (Sehwag), 4-156 (Ganguly), 5-282 (Laxman).

Australia bowling: Lee 22-3-62-2, Johnson 25-4-72-2, Clark 16-4-48-0, Hogg 18-2-78-1, Clarke 5-0-26-0.

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