… Sachin completed his 45th Test century
DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid smashed centuries as India took a firm grip of the second and final Test against Bangladesh by cruising to a 226-run lead yesterday.

Tendulkar, who also reached triple figures in the first Test, completed his 45th Test century as India ended the second day on 459 for five.

His stylish knock of 143 off 182 balls included 13 fours and a six before he was caught by Imrul Kayes off Shakib Al Hasan at short midwicket.

Dravid who also racked up 12 fours, retired hurt on 111 when a bouncer from paceman Shahadat Hossain stuck on him on the helmet

Tendulkar and Dravid added 222 runs for the third wicket and in the process became the most successful pair to put a century partnership in Test cricket.

They have been involved in 17 100-plus partnerships, one better then Australian Ricky Ponting and Mathew Hayden and West Indies’ Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

“It’s a two-pace wicket. The bounce was also inconsistent. It was not an easy track to bat on,” Tendulkar told reporters.

“They had defensive fields. They had fielders on the boundary lines. It was not that easy to get the scoreboard ticking at a rate that we would have liked.

“Then there were patches (when) we scored a lot of boundaries and made sure the run rate was a decent one.”

Spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was earlier reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for kicking and damaging an advertising board on the first day of the Test, was promoted up the order as nightwatchman but failed to last out the day when he was dismissed for 13 to end the day’s proceedings.

MISSED CHANCES
The hosts were left to rue two missed chances to dismiss Tendulkar with Raqibul Hasan dropping him at gully on 27 and 53 off the bowling of Rubel Hossain and Shahadat Hossain. That followed Shafiul Islam missing a good chance to run-out Dravid when the former skipper was on 12, the bowler failing to touch the ball that dismantled the stumps at the non-striking end with the batsman well out of his crease.

Dravid also escaped dismissal when on 28 as Junaid Siddique caught him at slip off a Rubel Hossain no-ball.

Resuming on 69-0, India lost Virender Sehwag early when the opener reacted slowly to a short delivery off Shahadat and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.

Sehwag had added 15 runs to his overnight total before falling for 56 off 63 balls including eight boundaries. The dismissal brought to an end of 103-run opening partnership between Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

Gambhir was out in almost identical fashion off the bowling of Shafiul Islam after making 68 runs off 83 balls. This was the 11th consecutive Test in which Gambhir had scored a fifty to equal the world record by West Indies’ Viv Richards.

India lead the two-match series 1-0 after wrapping up a 113-run win in Chittagong on Thursday.