Cricket: Tendulkar turns the screw

India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .511

Sri Lanka

SACHIN TENDULKAR scored his seventh Test century as India set Sri Lanka a formidable target of 511 in their first innings at Lucknow yesterday.

Tendulkar, 12 runs short of three figures overnight, reached his hundred with a flurry of boundaries in the first over of the second's day play, which had been delayed for 75 minutes by fog.

Sri Lanka's spinners did their best to stem the flow of runs, with Muttiah Muralitharan taking 5 for 162.

Today, the spotlight falls on Kapil Dev, who needs seven wickets to break Sir Richard Hadlee's record of 431 Test wickets.

(Second day: India won toss)

INDIA - First Innings

(Overnight: 269 for 3)

S R Tendulkar c Samaraweera b Anurasiri. . . . . . . . 142 * M Azharuddin c Tillakaratne b Anurasiri. . . . . . . .47 S V Manjrekar c and b Muralitharan. . . . . . . . . . . 61 Kapil Dev c Wickramasinghe b Muralitharan. . . . . . . .42 ] N Mongia c Samaraweera b Muralitharan. . . . . . . . .44 A Kumble b Wickramasinghe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 R K Chauhan c Tillakaratne b Muralitharan. . . . . . . . 3 Venkatapathy Raju not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Extras (lb3 nb8 w2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Fall: 1-63 2-84 3-205 4-347 5-370 6-446 7-459 8-482 9-491.

Bowling: Wickramasinghe 20-3-84-1 (nb5 w1); Liyanage 17-6-55-1 (nb3 w1); Ranatunga 3-2-1-0; Anurasiri 58-13-147-2; Kalpage 22-2-59-0; Muralitharan

41.5-3-162-5.

SRI LANKA: * A Ranatunga, R S Mahanama, D P Samaraweera, P A de Silva, H P Tillakaratne, R S Kalpage, P Dissanayake, M Muralitharan, G P Wickramasinghe, D K Liyanage, S D Anurasiri.

Umpires: S K Venkataraghvan and R C Sharma.