Tendulkar scales another mountain

After reaching his 10,000th run, with the pressure lifted off him, Tendulkar played fluently © AFP

The moment came minutes after the tea break. The fifth ball of the 62nd over, bowled at 2.40pm, by Abdul Razzaq, was just short of a length and slanting into the pads, and Sachin Tendulkar moved across his stumps and tucked the ball to the on-side to scale another personal summit. With that run, he became the fifth player in the world, and the second Indian, to score 10,000 Test runs.

Tendulkar, who came in to bat with the score on 156 for 2, after Virender Sehwag had powered India to a brisk start, was tentative early in his innings, playing out as many as 18 dot balls before getting off the mark. But he got under way with two crisp cover-driven fours off Shahid Afridi and from then on, with the scoreboard counting down the last few runs as he approached the milestone, his every run was cheered.

After reaching the milestone he was especially fluent, showing shades of his old self, cutting and driving both the spinners and medium-pacers. Danish Kaneria's attempts at curbing Tendulkar by bowling into the rough from around the stumps were wasted as Tendulkar got down on one knee and swept the ball fine for two fours, the second of which took him to his half-century. But just when he was looking dangerous, he went, edging a square-cut against Afridi to the wicketkeeper. Another record, the one that he is likely to cherish more, still awaits. For the moment, Sunil Gavsakar, the first man to score 10,000 Test runs, remains joint first with Tendulkar in the rank of century makers