Tendulkar creates history with 50th Test century

Tendulkar, 37, reached the landmark 56 minutes after tea when he drove fast bowler Dale Steyn through the covers after batting for 258 minutes and facing 197 balls.

Centurion, South Africa: Indian batting star Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday became the first player to hit 50 centuries in Test matches when he played a defiant innings on the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park.

Tendulkar, 37, reached the landmark 56 minutes after tea when he drove fast bowler Dale Steyn through the covers after batting for 258 minutes and facing 197 balls.

No other batsman has scored more than 39 Test centuries.

It was an almost flawless innings by the Indian batting maestro as he and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made a valiant effort to save their team from an innings defeat.

When he reached his century he and Dhoni had put on an unbeaten 160 for the seventh wicket and were within 47 runs of making South Africa batting again.

Tendulkar, who has been playing international cricket for 21 years, has hit centuries against every other Test nation.

His tally is made up of 11 hundreds against Australia, nine against Sri Lanka, seven against England, six against South Africa, five against Bangladesh, four against New Zealand, three each against West Indies and Zimbabwe and two against Pakistan.

Tendulkar, rain hold up South Africa

Sachin Tendulkar and the weather held up South Africa's charge toward victory late on day four of the first test against India at Centurion on Sunday.

After Tendulkar became the first player to score 50 test centuries, India reached 454-8 in its second innings when play was halted because of strong winds at the SuperSport Park ground and an approaching thunderstorm.

Tendulkar (103 not out) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (90) led a gritty fightback for India with a 172-run partnership after the top-ranked test team had slipped to 277-6, chasing the home team's first-innings total of 620-4 declared.

But Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh were out within five balls to put South Africa on the brink of victory, with India still 30 runs behind when play ended.

Agencies, Dec 19,2010