Sachin Tendulkar rediscovered his imperious best with a career-high 220 not out and shared a 353-run stand with V.V.S Laxman as India amassed 650 for five at stumps yesterday, batting Australia out of the series-deciding fourth cricket test.
It was Tendulkar's first double hundred in tests outside India, only the third of his 111-test career and first test century since his 176 against the West Indies in November, 2002.
Cricket's premier batsman stroked 30 boundaries and faced 419 deliveries in an innings that signaled a massive turnaround from 2003, when he struggled with hand problems and scored just 153 runs in five tests.
"It's very relieving, especially when you've not had a good series," said the 30-year-old Tendulkar, who now has 32 test centuries. "It's not that I wasn't batting well, I was just missing out on one particular ball -- instead of getting beaten I was nicking it.
"I knew a big innings was around the corner and it was just a matter of hanging in there."
Tendulkar and Laxman (178) batted together for almost seven hours to take India's total from 194 for three to 547 for four, securing an Indian record for the fourth wicket.
At stumps, Tendulkar was accompanied by Parthiv Patel (44) after an unbroken 80-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
Tendulkar's previous highest test innings was 217 against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in October 1999, when he also combined with Sourav Ganguly to set the previous Indian record of 281 for the fourth wicket.
New Zealand versus Pakistan
Scott Styris scored his second one-day international century to guide New Zealand to a four-wicket yesterday over Pakistan in the first match of a five-match limited-overs cricket series.
Man-of-the-match Styris was 101 not out when New Zealand crept past Pakistan's total of 229-7 with five balls remaining.
The win seemed out of New Zealand's reach when it lost three middle-order wickets for 15 runs between the 37th and 40th overs of its 50-over innings.
But Styris, who came to the wicket with New Zealand at 35-2, kept a cool head to see the home side to its first win in six one-day matches against Pakistan.
He scored his century from 108 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes, and kept New Zealand in the match when its target run-rate had seemed out of reach.
New Zealand, with six wickets down, had needed 44 runs from the last five overs, 31 from the last 20 balls, 27 from 18 deliveries and finally 17 with two overs remaining.
Pakistan managed to take charge with aggressive late-order batting and tight full-pitched bowling. It was only in the last two overs that Styris finally broke the visitors' grip on the match.
Styris did not panic as New Zealand's required run rate crept to six, to seven and finally beyond eight runs an over. He dominated the strike in an unbroken 74-run partnership with Brendon McCullum, hitting regular boundaries to keep New Zealand in sight of its winning total.
McCullum contributed only 13 to the partnership.
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