Tendulkar’s 47th ODI century takes India to 338

BANGALORE - Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar smashed his 47th ODI century as India amassed a huge 338 in 49.5 overs against England in a Group B match of the World Cup at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here Sunday.

Tendulkar (120) was superbly assisted by Gautam Gambhir (51) and Yuvraj Singh (58) as India, for the second consecutive time, posted a 300-plus score in the 2011 World Cup.

England pacer Tim Bresnan was outstanding and picked up the wickets of Yusuf Pathan (14), Virat Kohli (8) and Harbhajan Singh in four balls in the penultimate over to put a brake on India’s run spree. Bresnan finished with figures of five for 48.

Bresnan struck early to get rid of the dangerous Virender Sehwag, who raced to 35 off 26 balls, after wicketkeeper Matt Prior took a good one-handed catch.

Tendulkar and Gambhir then joined the party with their 134-run stand for the second wicket and smashed the England bowlers all over the park. Tendulkar was aggressive in his approach and set the tone of his innings with two crisply-timed fours off pace spearhead James Anderson in the ninth over. His first of five sixes came against Paul Collingwood, straight over the bowler’s head and he smashed him again over the mid-wicket boundary to bring his half-century in style.

Tendulkar also came down heavily on spinner Graeme Swann and hit him for two consecutive sixes in the 27th over and got to his century by whipping Bresnan for a four down the fine-leg. Tendulkar’s 115-ball knock that was studded with 10 fours and five sixes came to an end after he gave a leading edge off Anderson and was taken by Michael Yardy in the covers.

Yuvraj and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (31 of 25 balls) then came up with a 69 run stand taking India past 300-run target. Yuvraj struck nine fours in his 50-ball innings while Dhoni struck three fours and a