Tendulkar leads Indian fightback

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BANGALORE: It was day of agony and ecstasy for India. Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer in the history of Test cricket to complete 14,000 runs even as Marcus North made a statement of sorts, guiding Australia into the position of dominance with a well crafted century on the second day of the second Test on Sunday.

North notched up his highest Test ton of 128 as Australia finished their first innings at 478, their second highest at the Chinnaswamy stadium. Their previous best was 474 six years ago.

Once the Aussie batsmen were done with their job, it was their bowlers’ turn. The Aussie pace duo of Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson came up with a tight spell to peg back the chase, as India were 128 for 2 when the play was stopped at 34.2 overs with Tendulkar batting on 44 and Murali Vijay on 42.

Tendulkar now stands alone atop the Test batting charts with 14,000 runs. Needing two runs to enter the record books, Tendulkar punched Peter Goerge to the covers as the crowd went into a frenzy, celebrating his milestone. Ricky Ponting, who has 12,000 Test runs too applauded Tendulkar.

Scoreboard

Australia (1st Innings) North c Sreesanth b Harbhajan 128, Paine st Dhoni b Ojha 59, Johnson lbw P Ojha 0, Hauritz (run out) 17, Hilenhaus (not out) 16, George st Dhoni b Harbhajan 2,

Extras: (b-9, lb-12, w-1, nb-9) 31. Total (all out) 478. Fall of wickets: 1-99, 2-113, 3-132, 4-198, 5-256, 6-405, 7-415, 8-458, 9-459. Bowlilng: Zaheer 23-5-84-1, Sreesanth 21-1-79-0, Ojha 42-7-120-3, Harbhajan 43-4-148-4, Sehwag 4-1-7-0, Raina 8-1-19-1.

India (1st Innings): M Vijay (batting) 42, Sehwag c Johnson b Hilfenhaus 30, Dravid c North b Johnson 1, Tendulkar (batting) 44, Extras: (b-4, lb-2, w-5) 11, Total (2 wickets; 34.2 overs) 128. Bowling: Hilfenhaus 9-2-18-1, Johnson 7-2-30-1, George 5-1-18-0, Hauritz 11.2-0-45-0, Clarke 2-0-11-0.