re-wrote the record books on Thursday, hammering the fifth double Test century to add another feather to his well-adorned cap. As the crowd erupted with unbridled joy, Tendulkar, tired but composed, took off his helmet, looked skyward, closed his eyes to offer a silent prayer.
His captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni
came down from the striker's end to shake hands and hug him. The greatest accumulator of runs in the history of cricket, Tendulkar
possesses nearly all major batting record even though he insisted he never chased milestones. Over the past 12 months, though, Sachin has once again opened up a yawning gap between himself and all his contemporaries, and ensured that if at all any comparisons have to be made, they should be with another Australian - Don Bradman, who was famously reminded of himself when watching Sachin bat.
Earlier on Thursday, India, replying to Sri Lanka's mammoth 642/4 declared, carried their overnight total of 382/4 to 477 without further loss by lunch on the fourth day at the Sinhalese Sports
Club. Tendulkar and Raina, who came together on Wednesday afternoon with India struggling at 241-4, have so far added 236 runs for the fifth wicket on a pitch still favouring stroke-making.
Left-hander Raina went to lunch unbeaten on 112, becoming the ninth Indian to score a century in his first Test, while Tendulkar was on a masterly 152 not out.
Tendulkar, the world's leading run-getter, equalled West Indian Brian Lara's record of 19 scores of 150-plus. Australian legend Don Bradman did it on 18 occasions.
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