Tendulkar touches 50 at Centurion

 He was in a foreign land. At least a land that has stayed the most foreign to India even after their resurgence away from home. They started chanting "Sachin, Sachin" from the time he guided one past short third man to move to 88. There were whites, there were blacks, there were browns at the grass banks of SuperSport Park, and all they wanted was for Sachin Tendulkar's 50th Test hundred to come in front of them.

It was difficult to not let that affect you, but Tendulkar was in a different sphere. He was trying to save a game, trying to kill time, trying to run through the deficit. He took his time to get to 89, and South Africa tried to cut out boundary-scoring areas. A forward short leg came in, Morne Morkel bowled bouncers, around the helmet area, and into the ribs.

 Tendulkar kept ducking, the lower ones he kept keeping out; if he was nervous, he wasn't showing it. Against Paul Harris, who has somehow managed to be India's nemesis, he hit a straight six to send the crowd into frenzy again.

The chants started again. When at 97, he faced another flurry of bouncers. One of them went for five wides. Ten deliveries he spent on 97. Then came Dale Steyn. He got an inside-edge past midwicket to move to 99. Then he squirted one between cover and extra cover, celebrating as he ran the 100th run. Not extravagantly. The helmet came off, the back arched a bit, and he looked up to the skies. 

Not sure he noticed, but there were clouds headed towards the ground. He had a chat with MS Dhoni, with whom he had added 160 priceless runs. He then raised the bat to the dressing room for a brief second, then to the crowd for a little while longer, and went back to business. There was a Test to be saved. This was not the time to get carried away. 

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India reduced to 136-9 by South Africa quicks

CENTURION: South Africa's fast bowlers made up for lost time as they ripped through the Indian batting line-up on a rain-shortened first day of the first Test at SuperSport Park on Thursday. 

Scorecard 

Morne Morkel took four wickets and Dale Steyn three as India crashed to 136 for nine after being sent in on a green, damp pitch. 

Only Sachin Tendulkar, who made an elegant 36 off 34 balls, looked at ease as Steyn and Morkel confirmed their credentials as the world's most lethal new ball pair as they scythed through the side ranked number one in Test cricket. 

Steyn started the slide early when he had Virender Sehwag caught at third man for nought. He followed up with two superb, full, late-swinging deliveries to get rid of VVS Laxman and Tendulkar after the pair had mounted a mini-recovery after India had slumped to 27 for three. 

Laxman and Tendulkar put on 39 before Laxman and Tendulkar fell in successive overs from Steyn, sandwiched by the wicket of Suresh Raini, who lasted only three balls before edging Jacques Kallis to third slip. 

The tall Morkel took four for 20 in 12.1 hostile overs, including the wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid in successive overs. He also dismissed tailenders Ishant Sharma and Sree Sreesanth before bad light ended play. Dravid was his 100th victim in his 29th Test. 

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, hitting out as he was forced to bat with the tail, finished the day on 33 not out. 

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Dravid becomes third highest Test run-getter

CENTURION: Rahul Dravid on Thursday overtook former West Indian captain Brain Lara as the third highest run-getter in the history of Test cricket when he reached 11 in the first of the three-match series against South Africa. 

Coming into the match needing 11 runs to surpass Lara's 11,953 in the all-time run-getter's list, Dravid reached the milestone with a double, clipping Dale Steyn off the back foot towards the square-leg region at the SuperSport Park. 

Dravid, who has an average of 53.31 before this Test, achieved the feat in his 148th match. 

His teammate and Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar leads the chart with 14,3666 runs from 175 Tests, followed by Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who till date has scored 12,332 runs from 151 matches. 

Dravid is also just one short of becoming the first cricketer to take 200 catches in Test.

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Pathan powers India to win

Yusuf Pathan's maiden ODI century gave India their fourth straight win over New Zealand in a high-scoring affair in Bangalore.

Pathan finished on 122 not out as India chased down a target of 316 with seven balls to spare for a five-wicket triumph.

He shared an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 133 with Saurabh Tiwary (37no), who clinched the victory in style with a six off Nathan McCullum.

India lead the five-match series 4-0 and have the chance to complete a whitewash in Chennai on Friday.

Trouble

Pathan had walked out to the middle with India in trouble on 108-4 in the 20th over, left-arm paceman Andy McKay and off-spinner McCullum having taken two wickets each for the tourists.

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India crush New Zealand by 9 wickets, clinch series

Gautam Gambhir celebrates his century

Indian team led by Gautam Gambhir displayed a splendid performance and managed to beat New Zealand  in a 9-wicket win in the third ODI and seal the five-match ODI series 3-0 at Vadodara today.

Earlier, James Franklin led New Zealand's revival with a fighting unbeaten half-century as the visitors recovered from a poor start to post 224 for 9.

Down 0-2 and faced with a must-win situation, the visitors made a shocking start by losing their openers within the first five overs and were struggling at 106 for seven before Franklin (72 not out) and Nathan McCullum repaired the innings with a stand of 94.

The left-handed Franklin batted sensibly after coming in at 49 for 4 in the 16th over even as continued to tumble from the the other end.

He top-scored for the Black Caps with the help of five fours and one six in 108 balls while McCullum made 43 in 53 balls with four fours.

Their eighth-wicket stand off 107 balls took the score to 200 after the Kiwis had lost half their side for 77.
Apart from the eighth wicket pair, only opener Martin Guptill (12) and Scott Styris (22) reached the double figures in a largely uninspiring display put up by the Kiwis after they were asked to bat first by the hosts.
For India, Zaheer Khan (2/31), Yusuf Pathan (2/37 and R Ashwin (2/49) shared six wickets among them while Munaf Patel chipped in with one scalp.

The pitch for the match was a major surprise at a venue that normally provides flat tracks. There was a lot of bounce for the pace bowlers and bounce and turn for the spinners.

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