A timely reminder

"It was good to spend time in the middle against a quality attack. I enjoyed being there," Tendulkar told The Indian Express after his hundred.

Back-foot plan

ROI pacer S Sreesanth revealed how they had planned to keep Tendulkar on the back foot, but the plan didn't quite produce the results his team hoped for. Tendulkar showed his far younger Mumbai teammates how to bat, leaving his mountain of runs to one side and focusing on the job at hand. He was rarely ever rushed even as Mumbai folded up for 409, and there were times he got hit on the shoulder by Sreesanth but he never lost his composure.

If Sreesanth kept bowling bouncers — some zooming above Tendulkar's head, others directed at his shoulder — he left them well alone. Mumbai lost Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Abhishek Nayar in quick succession, as if to pave way for the veteran to hog the limelight.

setting things right

Left-arm spinners, especially those with the penchant to dart it in like Monty Panesar, might have troubled Tendulkar of late. But he was all over Pragyan Ojha on Friday. India's No.1 Test spinner was forced to try unnatural strategies like lending loop in the air to his deliveries and bowling to a tight leg-side field, trying to get Tendulkar on the drive. The result was Tendulkar jumping out of his crease and lofting Ojha over his head for six.

The left-armer then went back to his Plan A of bowling flatter but this time was hit inside-out over the covers. He continued to target Ojha and slammed two consecutive fours against the left-arm spinner. The seamers couldn't quite stop the Tendulkar onslaught either. Or even pause it. Pandey and Abhimanyu Mithun were treated with equal disdain regardless of the line or the length they bowled.\ Despite watching him from the non-striker's end, Mumbai's inexperienced tailenders kept trying to dispatch every ball to the ropes, with only Ankeet Chavan showing some mettle to play the supporting role. Of Tendulkar's 140 runs, 84 came courtesy 18 boundaries and two sixes.

... contd.

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