Tendulkar shines, North boosts Australia

BANGALORE, (Reuters) – India’s Sachin Tendulkar  passed another major milestone but a dogged century from  Australian Marcus North put the touring side in control of the  second test yesterday.

North’s career-best 128 was the cornerstone of the  Australian first innings which folded for 478 at tea on day two,  but not before their lower half had added 193 runs to their  overnight score of 285 for five wickets.

In reply, India made a feeble start, losing the explosive  Virender Sehwag (30) and bail-out specialist Rahul Dravid (one)  in quick succession.

Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 44 with opener Murali Vijay  (42) at the other end with India still trailing Australia by 350  runs.

“It’s going to be extremely important tomorrow that we have  a very big partnership,” Tendulkar told Neo Cricket channel  after the second day’s play which ended with India on 128-2.
“A couple of partnerships will bring us back in the game and  put us in a decent position. Right now it’s one of those  challenging phases.”

Playing his 171st test, Tendulkar became the first batsman  to amass 14,000 test runs in the 27th over of the Indian  innings, hitting off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for a boundary.

Earlier, North’s 149-run sixth wicket stand with fellow  overnight batsman Tim Paine (59) defied the Indian bowlers in  the morning session and took the visitors past the 400-run mark.
North mixed caution with occasional aggression,  slog-sweeping Pragyan Ojha for the first six of the innings  before retreating into his defensive shell.

Paine’s was a more eventful knock in which he was caught  behind off a Shanthakumaran Sreesanth no-ball and was dropped by  Suresh Raina off Ojha before the left-arm spinner returned to  settle the score.

North completed his fifth test century in the next over and  eventually fell to Harbhajan Singh after a resolute 240-ball  knock with 17 boundaries and a six in it.
“I got a start last night, so I needed a big score,” North  said.

“It’s a very good batting wicket, so it will be nice to get  a couple of early wickets tomorrow. They have got a partnership  in Vijay and Sachin but we will come out very hard tomorrow.”
Australia trail the two-match series 1-0.
Scoreboard


Scoreboard

Australia first innings:
(overnight 285-5)

S Watson c Dhoni b Ojha                        57
S Katich c Dravid b Singh                     43
R Ponting lbw b Raina                             77

M Clarke c Raina b Singh                      14

M Hussey c Sehwag b Khan                  34

M North c Sreesanth b Singh             128
T Paine st Dhoni b Ojha                         59
M Johnson          lbw  b Ojha                   0
N Hauritz run out                                  17

B Hilfenhaus not out                            16
P George st Dhoni b Singh                    2
Extras: (b-9, lb-12, w-1,nb-9)            31
Total: (all out; 141 overs)                  478
Fall of wickets: 1-99 2-113 3-132 4-198 5-256 6-405 7-415  8-458 9-459 10-478
Bowling: Khan 23-5-84-1, Sreesanth 21-1-79-0 (6nb, 1w), Ojha  42-7-120-3 (2nb), Singh 43-3-148-4, Sehwag 4-1-7-0 (1nb), Raina  8-1-19-1.

India first innings

M Vijay not out                                          42
V Sehwag c Johnson b Hilfenhaus       30
R Dravid c North b Johnson                    1
S Tendulkar not out                                44
Extras: (b-4, lb-2, w-5)                           11
Total (two wickets, 34.2 overs)          128
To bat: C. Pujara, S. Raina, M.S. Dhoni, H. Singh, Z. Khan,  P. Ojha, S. Sreesanth.      Fall of wickets: 1-37 2-38
Bowling (to date): Hilfenhaus 9-2-18-1, Johnson 7-2-30-1  (1w), George 5-1-18-0, Hauritz 11.2-0-45-0, Clarke 2-0-11-0.