Sachin Tendulkar summed up the day's proceedings as efficiently as he had helped India fight out of trouble. He said he was satisfied but not over the moon with the position the team was in after the first day of the crucial fourth and final Test.
“There is a lot of cricket left in this match. I won't say we are in a brilliant position but definitely we are in a decent position. Five wickets were too much, three would have been okay. I think we have a good total but there are four more days to go and we will want to be on our toes."
The first man to score 40 Test centuries felt the key was to just be there in the middle. "It was about keeping cool initially because when I walked in it was a critical stage. We had to make sure that we had a good partnership and took the game away from Australia because the momentum was with them."
While sounding relieved that he got a hundred after Adelaide in January, Tendulkar said he was not obsessed by the thought that it took some time in coming. "If you look at the series, this match is very important. If you score a century in an important game it benefits the team. Contributing to the team's cause is a great satisfaction.
{{/usCountry}}While sounding relieved that he got a hundred after Adelaide in January, Tendulkar said he was not obsessed by the thought that it took some time in coming. "If you look at the series, this match is very important. If you score a century in an important game it benefits the team. Contributing to the team's cause is a great satisfaction.
{{/usCountry}}"After Adelaide, I have played six or seven matches. I was batting well, but not getting to the three-figure mark. But that is not everything. As you have seen in this series, I have gone in at crucial times on four-five occasions and done well."
Having spent over four hours in the middle, Tendulkar said there would be help for spinners later on. "The wicket is playing good, but there is help for the spinners who are getting bounce so I think in a day or two it will be difficult to play them. Batting first is definitely an advantage, but it is important to bat well."
Krejza relieved
Jason Krejza was also a relieved man after being taken to the cleaners in the warm-up match against the Board President's XI. "It was good to have the time to fine-tune what I was doing. I saw a lot of footage of what I did there and of the Indian spinners and that helped. It was a nervous wait but it was fantastic to get those wickets," said the spinner.