Sachin Tendulkar's hunger for runs continues. The master blaster lit up the M A Chidambaram Stadium with a boundary-filled 139 as India Blue routed India Green by 266 runs in the second match of the Challenger Series, for the N K P Salve Trophy, in Chennai on Monday.
Set an imposing target, after India Blue amassed 381 for 6 in their allotted 50 overs, India Green folded tamely for 115 in 26.4 overs. Harbhajan Singh did the damage, claiming four wickets for ten runs in 4.4 overs.
Only discarded India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel offered resistance, scoring a 38-ball 43 before succumbing to the guile of the ace off-spinner.
Earlier, Tendulkar's fireworks looked like advance Diwali celebrations for Chennai fans. He struck 20 fours and four sixes in his 100-ball knock, which was dotted with two useful partnerships with Irfan Pathan (54, 53 balls, 4x4, 3x6) and skipper Rahul Dravid (62, 63 balls, 2x4, 3x6).
Later, M S Dhoni (79 not out, 59 balls, 6x4, 4x6), Yuvraj Singh (19, 14 balls, 1x6, 1x4) and Ajit Agarkar (17 not out, 6 balls, 2x4, 1x6) joined the run-feast as the men in blue plundered 109 runs in the last ten overs, the last five yielding 61 runs.
In an innings reminiscent of his glorious days, the world's highest ODI run-getter pummelled the pedestrian Green attack to score his second hundred since returning after the shoulder injury.
He made a comeback with a fine century in the DLF Cup, against the West Indies, and top-scored on Sunday with a breezy 61 in a losing cause against India Red.
Either caressing the ball through the covers or punching it past point or in the arc between midwicket and long-on, Tendulkar's innings was full of brilliant.
Almost all the bowlers got the stick from him. The one who suffered most was Uttar Pradesh's young left-arm spinner, who went for 21 runs in his very first over. Tendulkar went hammer and tongs, hitting him for two sixes and two fours. Runs flowed as Mohammad Kaif, leading India Green, looked clueless to stem them. But for the first over success by Laxmipathy Balaji, who snarled Tanmay Srivastava (coming in place of injured Virender Sehwag) off the third ball, it was toil for the bowlers.
Kaif's ploy to bring in deposed India skipper Sourav Ganguly in the 28th over hardly made any difference as Tendulkar cut loose, showing lot of improvisation.
After the early exit of Tanmay, he and Irfan Pathan resurrected the innings with a 130-run stand for the second wicket in 17 overs. Initially Pathan was aggressive and even outscored his illustrious partner. Once Tendulkar unleashed his fury on the bowlers, the holiday crowd had its money worth.
The exit of Pathan, who holed it out to Lahiri at long-on off Chawla, did not alter the situation. Dravid rightly rotated the strike by picking ones and twos and enjoyed Tendulkar's pyrotechniques from the other end.
Tendulkar dominated the 94-run third wicket stand with Dravid before he departed, hitting offie S Lahiri straight to Kaif at short mid-wicket.
The success notwithstanding, India Green continued to be at receiving end, as Dravid helped himself to a half century. He added 60 for the fourth wicket in 8.5 overs with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who along with Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar provided the final thrust.
Scorecard
India Blue:
Tanmay Srivastava c Jaffer b Balaji 0
Sachin Tendulkar c Kaif b S Lahiri 139
Irfan Pathan c Lahiri b Piyush Chawla 54
Rahul Dravid c Wasim Jaffer b Nehra 62
M S Dhoni not out 79
Yuvraj Singh c Piyush Chawla b Praveen Kumar 19
Dinesh Mongia c Kaif b Balaji 1
Ajit Agarkar not out 17.
Extras: (b-1, nb-4, w-5) 10
Total: 381 for 6 in 50 overs.
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-132, 3-226, 4-286, 5-322, 6-328.
Bowling: L Balaji 8-0-62-2, Ashish Nehra 10-0-67-1, Praveen Kumar 9-1-77-1, Piyush Chawla 6-1-39-1, Hemang K Badani 4-0-44-0, Sourav Ganguly 5-0-23-0, S Lahiri 8-0-68-1.
India Green:
Wasim Jaffer c (sub) Ravindra Jadeja b Munaf Patel 12
Sourav Ganguly c (sub) Ravindra Jadeja b Munaf Patel 24
Parthiv Patel c Dhoni b Harbhajan 43
Suresh Raina c Harbhajan b Irfan Pathan 0
Mohd. Kaif c Dinesh Mongia b Irfan Pathan 0
Hemang Badani c Agarkar b Dinesh Mongia 20
Praveen Kumar st Dhoni b Harbhajan 0
S Lahiri run out 2
Piyush Chawla c Munaf b Harbhajan 2
L Balaji not out 5
Ashish Nehra c Yuvraj b Harbhajan 0
Extras: (lb-2, nb-1, w-4) 7
Total: 115 all out in 26.4 overs.
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-48, 3-52, 4-55, 5-88, 6-88, 7-91, 8-100, 9-111, 10-115
Bowling: Ajit Agarkar 5-0-33-0, Munaf Patel 5-1-15-2, R P Singh 4-0-23-0, Irfan Pathan 7-0-24-2, Harbhajan singh 4.4-1-10-4, Dinesh Mongia 1-0-8-1.