SHARJAH, Nov 8: He is the don of a new era. The master blaster who will walk into the new millennium with every limited overs batting record under his belt. The peerless star whose exploits with the willow have already reached mind-boggling proportions, Sachin Tendulkar was at his matchless best on Sunday as he brought the spectators face to face with his awesome potential as India smashed the Zimbabweans by seven wickets in the Coca Cola Trophy cricket tournament at the Sharjah stadium.

What an extraordinary batsman this Tendulkar is. On a slow pitch not conducive to stroke-making, he took batting to a different plane altogether to blast his 20th century in one-day internationals. No other batsman in the world has scored more than 17 one-day hundreds.

When the Zimbabweans batted in the afternoon they had just 12 boundary hits to show in their entire innings. The slowness of the pitch simply defeated their stroke-making capacity. Not Tendulkarthough. He slowed down considerably while nearing his century, yet smashed 13 boundaries and a six in his 97-delivery century to prove that he had it in him to transcend beyond the limitations imposed by the benign pitch.

Handsome drives, lusty pull shots, deft late cuts, were all unleashed by a player who showed that he would write his own rules, again and again. In the process India remained firmly on course for a berth in next Friday's final. Their all-win record after two matches puts them on top of the table, followed by Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, in that order.

This afternoon skipper Mohammed Azharuddin turned lucky with the toss yet again and inserted the opposition. The Zimbabweans, playing for the second consecutive day, looked a drained-out side on the field. Their batsmen, barring lower order player Heath Streak, failed to fire. After the openers, Alistair Campbell (25) and Grant Flower (17) put on a useful 44 for the first wicket, the rest collapsed.

Spinners Anil Kumble, Nikhil Chopra andSunil Joshi reduced Zimbabwe to 83 for six before Streak (59: 71 balls, 3 sixes, 2 fours) and Craig Wishart (25) rescued the side with a 68-run stand.

But a total of 196 from 50 overs was never going to be enough against a resurgent India, as Tendulkar proved so poignantly under lights. The champion batsman lost Saurav Ganguly who went for a walk and was stumped for 28. Nayan Mongia too fell to Strang, caught at mid-off while Azharuddin, after helping Tendulkar add 92 for the third wicket was superbly caught in the deep by a diving Johnson, again off Strang for a sedate 28.

Jadeja was with Tendulkar when the latter reached his century. India won with seven wickets and 9.2 overs to spare. Tendulkar's masterly unbeaten 118 (112 balls, 14 fours, 2 sixes) fetched him the man of the match award.

India play Sri Lanka tomorrow.

SCOREBOARD

Zimbabwe: Alistair Campbell run out 25 (32b, 3x4); Grant Flower lbw Kumble 17 (39b, 1x4); Neil Johnson b Chopra 3 (3b); Murray Goodwin c Robin b Chopra 14(23b); Andy Flower c Kumble b Joshi 10 (35b); Craig Evans b Joshi 8 (20b); Craig Wishart lbw Kumble 25 (41b, 1x4); Heath Streak c Ganguly b Srinath 59 (71b, 3x4, 2x6); Paul Strang run out 12 (28b); Eddo Brandes b Agarkar 11 (7b, 1x6); Andy Whittall not out 5 (2b, 1x4); Extras: (3lb, 2w, 2nb) 7. Total (all out in 49.5 overs) 196

Fall of wickets: 1-44 (Campbell); 2-47 (G Flower); 3-49 (Johnson); 4-72 (Goodwin); 5-80 (A Flower); 6-83 (Evans); 7-151 (Wishart); 8-175 (Streak); 9-190 (Paul Strang)

Bowling: Srinath 10-0-37-1 (1nb); Agarkar 9.5-0-57-1 (1nb 1w); Kumble 10-0-31-2; Nikhil Chopra 10-0-21-2; Joshi 9-0-43-2 (1w); Tendulkar 1-0-4-0

India: Saurav Ganguly st A Flower b Strang 28 (49b, 5x4); Sachin Tendulkar not out 118 (112b, 14x4, 2x6); Nayan Mongia c Johnson b Strang 1 (5b); Azharuddin c Johnson b Strang 28 (56b); Ajay Jadeja not out 12 (25b, 1x4); Extras (6w, 3nb, 1lb) 10. Total (for 3 in 40.2 overs) 197

Fall of wickets: 1-63 (Ganguly); 2-69 (Mongia); 3-161(Azhar)

Bowling: Brandes 6-1-26-0 (1w); Johnson 6-0-25-0 (1w 2nb); Streak 5-0-33-0; Strang 10-2-32-3 (1nb); Whittal 3-0-30-0; Evans 4-0-18-0; Goodwin 6.4-0-32-0 (4w)

Man of the Match: Sachin Tendulkar