Tendulkar warmed the cockles of the good turn-out at the Wankhede Stadium by batting right till the end of the Mumbai innings after coming to the crease in the second over itself at the fall of night watchman Shardul Thakur's wicket. Watchful in the beginning against the swinging ball and the short-pitched stuff dished out by Sreesanth, Tendulkar opened out later with a string of exquisite drives, mostly through the off-side cordon and straight, for fours to reach the landmark 100 in 139 balls with 12 fours and a six each off spinners Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha. It was also Tendulkar's second ton in the annual Irani Cup game. His earlier one made in 1989 for Mumbai against the Rest of India, which clinched him a place in Krish Srikkanth-led squad for his maiden tour to Pakistan. Starting with a splendid front-foot extra cover drive off Pandey to the second ball he faced, Tendulkar looked absolutely in command till the end of the innings. Tendulkar and Rahane were cruising along merrily before Harbhajan broke their fourth wicket stand by trapping the latter leg-before when the batsman tried to sweep. Replays suggested that the ball hit the bat but umpire Subrat Das upheld the appeal. In the course of his 479th innings in first class cricket, Tendulkar also reached another big milestone of compiling 25,000 runs in the first class game, including 15,645 runs in 194 Tests. He needed 104 runs in his 479th innings in first-class cricket for reaching the second landmark. Gavaskar had notched up 81 first-class hundreds between 1971 and 1987, which included 34 Test centuries. MORE
