Tendulkar ton spurs India to 341

On a morning when all the big boys came out to play, the first among equals smashed his 41st ODI century to set West Indies a daunting 342 for victory in the fourth and final game at the IPCL ground in Baroda. Having come in at 148 for 2, halfway through the innings, Sachin Tendulkar scripted a magnificent 76-ball hundred, reaching three figures off the final delivery, a push to midwicket. Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in and biffed a stunning 40 from just 20 deliveries, including three huge sixes, and there were sizeable contributions from Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as the batsmen ran riot following Brian Lara's decision to field.

The final passage of play was just carnage, with Dhoni and Tendulkar walloping 75 from 39 balls after two century partnerships earlier had set the game up for the Indians. Tendulkar scampered his ones and twos with tremendous energy, and picked the gaps in the outfield when the opportunities came. There was one massive six off Marlon Samuels that sailed over midwicket, though he was extremely fortunate to be at the receiving end of two wretched bits of fielding.

First, Lara dropped a sitter to his left at cover when Tendulkar had made 85, and six runs later, Dwayne Smith allowed a flick off the pads to sail through his palms at deep square leg. It summed up a very ordinary fielding display from the West Indies, with India's batsmen targetting the weak arms with ruthless precision.

After his gamble at the toss, Lara had taken another punt with the new ball. Ian Bradshaw was back in the XI, but it was the sedate medium pace of Smith that he turned to as foil to Daren Powell, perhaps inspired by memories of Smith's 4 for 31 against India at Kuala Lumpur. He nearly had Uthappa early on as well, with umpire Amish Saheba turning down a leg-before appeal that looked fairly adjacent to the naked eye.

Uthappa though was quickly on his way, with a thick edge to third man and a steer in the same direction - shots that left Powell infuriated. Things came to a boil in his next over, with five wides, two sixes and a wicket. A misdirected bouncer started it, with the ball evading both Uthappa's attempted hook and Denesh Ramdin's leap on its way to the fence. Then, Uthappa took over, with a nonchalant slash for six over third man, and a magnificent loft over long-on, hitting through the line to a ball that wasn't even full.

The next ball was quicker and bounced a little more from short of a length, and the edge was nearly taken at first slip. It was always going to be difficult to carry on at that pace, and things certainly slowed down as Dravid took nine balls to get off the mark. By then though, Ganguly was in cruise control. Powell had induced a top-edged hook off a short ball from round the wicket, and West Indies zoomed in on this supposed frailty with disastrous results.

Both Smith and Powell were pulled disdainfully for four, and when the full delivery was directed at his legs, he moved out of the way and hit cleanly through the covers. The only thing that looked like stopping him was a dodgy back that required manipulation from the physio when he'd made 37, and after the treatment, India upped the ante.

Dravid was soon into his stride too, with lovely cuts for four off Rayad Emrit, and a glorious straight loft off Samuels. Samuels and Emrit reined things in somewhat though, with only 60 coming from the second and third Powerplays, after 67 had come in the first batch of 10. Runs though came steadily on a pitch where the grass cover was like a chimera. Ganguly's dismissal, giving Chris Gayle the charge, allowed West Indies to dream, but then Tendulkar came out and made their morning a nightmare.

The start was sedate enough, with both Dravid and Tendulkar clearly aware of what had transpired at Chennai when they tried to force the pace too soon. Here, they took 64 balls for the 50 partnership, picking off the singles and biding their time. When the acceleration came, West Indies didn't know how to cope. Gayle bowled tidily, conceding just 34 from his eight overs, but every other bowler came in for a fearful pummelling hammer as the shackles were broken.

Dravid took 77 balls for his 50 and then ticked along at nearly a run a ball, even as Tendulkar started to find the gaps with unerring regularity. The partnership was worth 118 in just 18.3 overs when Dravid's flail at Samuels dropped into the hands of long-on. But if Lara thought that was bring out some respite, he was sadly mistaken.

Dhoni came in, set himself and proceeded to unveil two of those mind-boggling shovelled sixes, but even his destructive ways were eclipsed by a master who timed his century to a nicety. It had been four years since Tendulkar struck a hundred in a winning cause, but with the grassy surface clearly to the slow bowlers' liking, you sensed that that was about to change.

Source : cricinfo.com