Sachin Tendulkar - the first batsman to score 50 centuries in Test cricket

India's Tendulkar plays a shot as South Africa's Boucher and Amla watch during the fourth day of their first test cricket match in Pretoria

Master blaster Sachin TendulkarSachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 50 centuries in Test cricket history.

The God of Cricket reached the coveted landmark when he completed his ton in 197 balls on the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park, Centurion.

Tendulkar takes a single off Dale Steyn to achieve the historic milestone.

The master batsman, enjoying a memorable year at age 37, has amassed 1,532 runs in thirteen Tests this year at an amazing average of more than 85 runs per innings Dedicated 20 Years Of Life For Play.

Tendulkar has scored seven centuries and five fifties in the year 2010 with one more match to play against South Africa starting on December 26.

Test cricket's greatest run-scorer has till now scored more than 14,500 runs and scored 59 fifties along with the half-century of centuries. i don't know about others but he is God For Me And All Cricket Fan Across The Globe

The bowler who troubled Tendulkar the most

Tendulkar, surprisingly enough favors England over Australia in the Ashes an names Eoin Morgan as the key man. This is enough reason for me to revisit my own impression of the Ashes - I think Australia will win with reasonable ease, though I don't see either side winning more than 2 out of the 5 Tests. If the wickets are sporting (i.e. they favor bowlers at least in some way), then this might change.

As for the bowler who has troubled him most in Tests. I'm going to stick my neck out here and suggest that he's going to name Hansie Cronje. Note that I write this on Friday evening, before the interview is published. He has said before that he hates facing part time bowlers more than anything else, and Cronje has dismissed him 5 times in Tests.

The man himself says, as I suggested he might, that it was Hansie Cronje who troubled him most. In comments and chats, Abdul Razzaq, Pedro Collins, Glenn McGrath and Dion Nash came up. A few years ago, there was a theory doing the rounds that Tendulkar was bothered by orthodox left-arm spinners, especially Raymond Price of Zimbabwe. Yet, we are presented with Hansie Cronje.

This choice is far from innocent on Tendulkar's part. This is not to say that it is a sly choice. It is true that Cronje had as much success against Tendulkar as Donald did. But then, by that count, Muttiah Muralitharan has dismissed Tendulkar more times than any other bowler - 8 in 19 Tests. Tendulkar also average 48.9 in these Tests and took 5 Test hundreds off Murali. Against Warne and McGrath, Tendulkar has played 2 major series - a 0-3 defeat in Australia in 1999-2000, and a 2-1 win in India in 2000-01. In 12 innings, he reached at least 50 6 times in those series. The mammoth innings eluded him - 126 at Chennai and 116 at Melbourne being his three figure innings. By contrast, Brian Lara played 47 innings against McGrath and reached at least 50 13 times. One of those, was his best ever Test innings in my view - 213 at Sabina Park.

Double trouble for Australia in Bangalore

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will never forget this trip to Bangalore. The day he arrived at the Garden city from Mohali, he won the ICC player of the year award.

He followed it up by completing his 14,000 Test runs on Sunday and the next day he scored his 49th Test hundred and is just nine runs short of his sixth double century.

On Monday, the Australians were left wondering as how to get Tendulkar out with the Little Master playing a chanceless innings of 191 runs to put India on top in the second Test match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Tendulkar along with Murali Vijay, who scored his maiden Test century, took India into a comfortable position as the hosts ended Day Three on 435 for five in reply to Australia’s 478 runs. India now trail by 43 runs and the bad news for the visitors is that Tendulkar is still at the centre along with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is batting on 11.

Tendulkar and Vijay added 308 runs for the third wicket off which 218 were scored on Monday to really make it a day that the Australians would like to forget at the earliest. Though Vijay was unlucky to be out on 139, his innings was overshadowed by Tendulkar’s knock.

Right from the morning it looked like it was going to be Tendulkar’s day. He started the day with a boundary of the very first ball and two balls later brought up his fifty with a paddle sweep.

From then on there was no stopping Tendulkar. While his first 50 took 91 balls, Sachin raced to his next 50 in just 66 balls to bring up his 49th century in style hitting Nathan Hauritz for two sixes over wide long-on.

Tendulkar and Vijay also ensured that the tradition set in the first two days was followed as they batted through the morning session that once again turned out to be wicketless for the third successive day.

Post lunch, Vijay stepped on the accelerator, while Tendulkar played the sheet anchor’s role.

The Tamil Nadu batsman, who scored his third test fifty in the morning session, made full use of the opportunity as he smashed the bowlers all across the ground to get past his previous highest score of 87 runs.

Once in the nervous nineties, Vijay took 43 balls to get to his maiden century and he celebrated it in style by jumping in the air. In fact, it took him 11 balls to move from 99 to 100.

The two made the day more agonising for the visitors as Australia failed to get a breakthrough even in the second session.

The last session started with yet another milestone for Tendulkar, who reached 150 runs for the 20th time in his career. This added another feather to his already overcrowded cap as he broke Brian Lara’s record of going past the 150-run mark 19 times.

He was replaced by debutant Cheteshwar Pujara, who started on a good note hitting a beautiful cover drive off the second ball he faced in Test cricket. But he was unlucky to get out the very next ball after the Johnson delivery kept low and shot across

towards a surprised Pujara, who crouched and tried

to get some bat in the way.

But he couldn’t and his debut lasted for just threedeliveries.

Suresh Raina, who has been in good form, played some glorious shots. At one stage it looked as if Raina along with Tendulkar would see offthe day’s play after the Australian’s were forced to deploy spinner from both ends due to fading light.

But Raina played a loose shot off Michael Clarke only to hit it straight to mid-on where Ben Hilfenhaus made no mistake and the left hander departed for 32 (43b 5x4).

While wickets kept tumbling at the other end, Tendulkar didn’t lose his concentration and carried on minting runs against what looked like a helpless Aussie attack until the umpires decided to call it a day due to bad light with four more overs left.