Tendulkar takes India to famous win Waqar Younis had good reason to smile broadly when he won the toss. Batting first was always a better choice at SuperSport Park, and with his battery of fearsome bowlers, Pakistan had the resources to apply the pressure during an Indian chase. Sure enough, Pakistan's batsmen complied and posted a total of 274, with Saeed Anwar making his 20th one-day hundred. But they had reckoned with Sachin Tendulkar. Collaring the bowling attack to smash 98 off just 75 balls, with 12 fours and a six, Tendulkar took bowlers on regardless of reputation. He cover-drove Wasim Akram, cut Waqar Younis, and slashed Shoaib Akhtar over point for six. It was a brilliant exhibition of unrivalled strokeplay, and when he was dismissed with the score on 177, India were so comfortable that Yuvraj Singh (50) and Rahul Dravid (44) only needed to find the gaps to canter to a six-wicket win in the 46th over. India now stride into the Super Six, while Pakistan must look to crush Zimbabwe to stand a chance..

One of my most important innings - Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly was a very happy man after India's win over Pakistan in what many had described as the mother of all battles. "It was a huge game back home. Schools were closed, offices were closed, and we're so happy we could make everybody smile back in India," said Ganguly. Ganguly also praised Sachin Tendulkar. "He's been in great form, and it's not the first time (that he has played a match-winning innings). He's a champion in one word, and the knock he played is one of the best I've seen him play." "It's obviously one of the most important innings I've played and when it's a World Cup match against Pakistan that makes it a special innings and I'll put it right up there," observed Tendulkar. "I was picking the line and length quite early today and felt very comfortable there in the middle from the moment of playing the back foot cover drive off Wasim," he added. Talking about his problems towards the latter half of his innings, Tendulkar said, "I started getting cramps and it went from bad to worse. There was a stage in the game when I even couldn't stand properly." Losing skipper Waqar Younis, for his part, blamed the Pakistan bowlers. "Looking at the total of 270 it seemed a good one, but unfortunately we didn't bowl that well, we bowled both sides of the wicket." But Waqar gave due credit to Tendulkar. "A brilliant innings. I think getting 110 in the first 11 overs took the game away from us. India played much better than us today. When we took Sachin's wicket we thought we came back into the game, but Dravid came in and played like he normally plays and it was an excellent role that was required."

Working hard to watch the cricket For the residents of the small Indian village of Samda, it took 15 days of hard work and generous donations to ensure they could see the World Cup cricket tournament. Some 15 kms from the state capital Lucknow, Samda did not have cable television until a group of local men took the task of providing it on themselves. Villagers chipped in to raise Rs 30,000 and pulled in a 6.5-km cable wire to ensure telecast. "It was a difficult task for us to have such a long wire, but we wanted to make sure we did not miss the match," said Shambhu Mishra. "It took us 15 days to manage the show. It's a collective effort and every family of this village donated money for the cause." Tractors were used as television stands and generators and car batteries put on stand-by in case of power failure during the high-profile India-Pakistan match.

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