Sydney, January 06: Sachin Tendulkar was firmly in sight of his 100th international century as Indian batsmen showed lot of character during the opening session on the fourth day of the second cricket Test against Australia. However, he missed his ton as Clarke dismissed him at 80.
The visitors were 243 for 3 at lunch, still needing 225 runs to avoid innings defeat. Tendulkar (70 batting) and VVS Laxman (44 batting) put on an useful partnership of 75 runs for the fourth wicket during the first session.
While Tendulkar hit nine boundaries, Laxman had five hits to the fence during the session.
India, resumed at 114 for 2 this morning, lost overnight batsman Gautam Gambhir (83) but scored 129 runs off 27 overs during the two-hour session.
Tendulkar, who once spent 51 balls without scoring last evening, was in his stride straightaway and reeled off a series of fours off Ben Hilfenhaus, all square of the wicket on the off-side.
The iconic batsman, unbeaten on 8 last evening, began with a back cut for four off Hilfenhaus and followed it up with a steered boundary in the same direction in the same over.
Gambhir deliberately glided a James Pattinson delivery through slips for a four and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin let one slip through his gloves for four and 18 runs were taken from the first two overs.
Tendulkar continued to go for deliveries pitched outside the off-stump and played the square cut to good effect.
Before Hilfenhaus was through his first spell of 3-0-21-0 this morning, Tendulkar picked up his fifth four off the same bowler in the same direction.
Teams
India: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni (c) (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav.
Australia: James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Michael Hussey, Nathan Lyon, David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (c), Brad Haddin (wk).
——PTI