Thanks a billion, Tendulkar

Cricket World Cup: India win first duel with Pakistan for three years thanks to Little Master

The World Cup sprang to magnificent life yesterday with a match and an occasion which would have graced any venue at any time. India beat Pakistan by six wickets before a fervent crowd who had obviously been transplanted from the sub-continent, and Sachin Tendulkar provided a resplendent innings of 98, which was one of the grandest of all the 300 he has played in one-day internationals.

The match had resonance not only because a place in the second stages of the tournament virtually depended on it but because it was the first between these bitter rivals for almost three years. The wishes of politicians, mostly from India, have kept them apart but there was no question about what the wishes of the people were.

Sourav Ganguly, India's delighted captain who was out first ball yesterday, said: "I don't know how to say how happy we are. It was a big game for us and for a billion people back home. Schools were closed, offices were shut. We're so happy to put smiles on the faces of people in India."

India have not won the World Cup but there were moments in the cauldron yesterday when it felt as though they had. In overtaking Pakistan's respectable score of 273 for 7, in which Saeed Anwar scored a lovely century that was to be dwarfed, they attained the highest second-innings winning score of the eighth World Cup.

It was a batsman's match, as the scores indicate, but a limping Tendulkar, fighting against cramp in his left leg, was undone by a brutal ball from Shoaib Akhtar which reared up at his throat.

The great Tendulkar, not prone to overstatement, said later: "This means so much to the people in India. For one and a half years they've been talking about the match on March the first. It was an innings that was right up there."

Beforehand the players shook hands on the outfield and Ganguly exchanged official team ties with Waqar Younis, the Pakistan captain. It reminded all that it was just a game and that two great rivals should join happy battle more often. They responded consummately. As for England, the result probably did them a favour.