Tendulkar holding strong in match against Pakistan

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Sachin Tendulkar led a charmed life as he reached fifty against Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.

'The Little Master' came into this match needing just one more century to become the first batsman to score a hundred international hundreds - he has 51 in Tests and 48 in one-dayers.

But off-spinner Saeed Ajmal nearly had him out twice in successive balls for 23, seeing an lbw decision overturned on review before Kamran Akmal's stumping appeal failed to convince the third umpire.

Then, on 27, Tendulkar pulled Pakistan captain and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi hard to short mid-wicket only for Misbah-ul-Haq to drop the two-handed catch.

He was dropped again, on 45, when he mistimed a drive off Afridi and Younus Khan at mid-off, after juggling the ball, failed to hold a relatively straightforward chance.

Tendulkar completed a 67-ball fifty when he struck Afridi through extra-cover for his eighth four.

After a blazing start at Mohali, India is now struggling as Pakistan cut through the top order.

Wahab Riaz came to the verge of hat-trick glory, when he dismissed Kohli, who came out after Mohammad Hafeez got Gautam Gambhir stumped, at 9 and Yuvraj Singh for naught.

Earlier, despite Virender Sehwag's dismissal slowing down the run flow, India cruised to 100 in 15 overs, with Sachin Tendulkar and Gambhir anchoring the show well.

Viru started the pyrotechnics off ‘late’, in the third ball of the first over instead of the first ball, and amassed 21 runs in the third over by Umar Gul, cracking five fours in the process.

Teams:
India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wkt), Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wkt), Asad Shafiq, Younus Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal.