How Narine spoiled Tendulkar's birthday

'Birthday boy' Sachin Tendulkar, who had a busy time cutting cakes, had a disappointing day at office on Wednesday. Sunil Narine ruined his much-hyped 40th birthday in the Pepsi IPL match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

- PHOTOS: Kolkata celebrates Tendulkar's birthday at Eden

In what turned out to be an anti-climax end to the birthday celebrations, the veteran batsman's middle-stump was sent cartwheeling after he was done in by a perfect off-spinner from the Knight Riders 'mystery' man. His scored just two off six balls.

The full house at Eden Gardens that had come with placards and greetings to greet the maestro on his birthday was shocked into disbelief.

Tendulkar, who cut a 40-pound cake before the start of the match, got a huge ovation when Mumbai Indians began their 160-run chase against the Knight Riders. Fans waited patiently for 15 balls to watch their idol bat. Laxmipathy Balaji it was who he faced first, in the third over. It was a tentative start to begin with, as the ball, going down the leg side, hit his pads.

Tendulkar opened his account by coming down the track and taking a single off Iqbal Abdulla. Then, he was a mute spectator at the other end as Dwayne Smith hit the left-arm spinner for two consecutive sixes.

But a much-awaited battle was in store in the next over as captain Gautam Gambhir brought on Narine in the fifth over. The West Indies spinner gave his fifth delivery a lot of flight and it beat the senior batsman's front-footed defence and crashed into the middle-stump.

It was a shock for Tendulkar fans, who would have loved to see him repeat his 25th birthday performance, when he decimated the Aussie attack with a fine 134 that enabled India win the tri-nation tournament in Sharjah way back in 1998.