29 July,2010 03:29 PM IST | | Agencies
Sachin Tendulkar hit his fifth double century as India made 589 for five in their first innings, in reply to Sri Lanka's 642 for four declared, at tea on the fourth day of the second cricket Test here Thursday.
Tendulkar was batting on 202 and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on 50 at the tea break.
Earlier, Suresh Raina notched up a century on debut besides putting on a 236-run partnership with veteran Sachin Tendulkar as India avoided the follow on to reach 477 for four in their first innings at lunch on the fourth day
Overnight 382 for four, India needed 51 more runs to avoid the follow at the start of play on Thursday. Tendulkar, after a lot of waiting and watching, pushed debutant off spinner Suraj Randiv along the carpet to the cover boundary as he began bridging the still large first innings deficit.
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Raina compounded Randiv's anxiety as he swatted the lanky bowler to the long off boundary for the first six of the day. The 150-run partnership between the two came in 156 minutes and 243 balls and marked the highest fifth wicket partnership for India against Sri Lanka.
India's 400 came in 686 balls. Raina also incidentally became the 12th debutant century maker for India as he and Tendulkar reached a 200-run partnership in 334 balls.
