Aussie media hail Tendulkar's 'batting masterclass'

Australian media Tuesday hailed a "batting masterclass" by India's Sachin Tendulkar after he erased the tourists' first innings lead with an unbeaten 191 in Bangalore.

Shots of the small-statured Indian raising his arms and bat aloft after hitting his 49th Test century ran in major publications under headlines such as "Sachin is man of the century" and "A privilege to watch".

"Emphatic doesn't really come close to justifying Tendulkar's batting masterclass inside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, making Australia's attack look as fearsome as a toilet-roll commercial puppy," the Sydney Morning Herald said.

"He wrapped his sheets of genius around them with singles, fours, sixes, flicks, cuts, glances, drives, slogs, no mercy."

The 37-year-old played "like the kid who wished it wouldn't get dark" the paper said in its glowing account of the Indian's demolition of the Australian bowling attack, in which "balls disappeared".

"Tendulkar is exceptional," wrote columnist Peter Roebuck in the same paper. "Every shot he plays is compelling."

Roebuck said cricket did not realise how lucky it had been to have extraordinary talents such as Tendulkar and Australian spin bowler Shane Warne playing in the same period, as he also praised the Indian's character.

"India might never know how blessed it has been that its best cricketers of the period were also its most upstanding," he said, adding that scandal-hit Pakistan had enjoyed no such luxury.

Tendulkar is the only man to post 1,000 runs in a calendar year on six occasions -- with Australia's Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden and West Indian Brian Lara hitting this milestone five times, the Daily Telegraph noted.

"Tendulkar's resurgence has put an almost insurmountable gap between him and Ponting in the race to be the highest all-time run-getter," the Sydney tabloid added.

The Australian newspaper described the "little master" as "the one constant in an ever-changing cricket universe, ever present, always scoring. He has been at the crease for 21 years".

"The Sachin show never stopped," it said of the third day of the second Test, in which Tendulkar dented Australian hopes of a series-levelling victory. "The living legend batted all day and was 191 at the close of play."

"How he haunts the Australians. Last time they were in India, Ricky Ponting's men watched him score his 13,000th run. In this Test he brought up his 14,000th and at times yesterday he seemed to be on his way to 15,000th.

"God alone knows when he will desist."

India, 1-0 up in the two-Test series, were 435-5 at the end of day three, closing on Australia's first innings total of 478.

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