Tendulkar beats Sri Lanka into submission By Sachin Tendulkar's own admission, India's secure presence in the NatWest finals gave him some room to free his arms. As Shane Warne can testify, that is a dangerous scenario indeed. Sri Lanka felt the brunt of that mighty MRF bludgeon on Thursday as Tendulkar smashed 113 off 102 balls (12x4, 1x6) in taking India to 304 - the highest total ever reached in a NatWest tourney. Sri Lanka had a decent chance of chasing that down, however, with their strong batting and the good wicket. But aside from Marvan Atapattu (53) and Kumara Sangakkara (66 off 47 balls), few batsmen could come to terms with Harbhajan Singh's bowling. The turbaned off-spinner took 4-46, and Sri Lanka crashed to a 63-run loss, ending their NatWest campaign on a sour note. But the entire tour, including the Tests, has not been a happy one for the Sri Lankans, and relief that it is over must be the foremost emotion in their minds.

Tendulkar relaxed as Jayasuriya reflects on defeat Sachin Tendulkar's 113 took India to their highest score in the NatWest series so far. It was his 33rd one-day century, that helped India to a 63-run win over Sri Lanka at Bristol. Tendulkar reckoned that the fact that India had already qualified for the final helped him to relax and play as he did. "Since we have qualified for the final, I just wanted to go out there and enjoy myself," he said. "It was a fantastic batting wicket too." Meanwhile, the Sri Lankans will be pleased their tour is at an end after a run of disappointing results. Their captain Sanath Jayasuriya admitted that things had not always gone as he would have liked over the past three months. Jayasuriya would certainly have missed the services of his weapon of choice, off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, to be available throughout. "If Murali had been there this would have been a different game," said Jayasuriya. "In this one-day series we would have won one or two games more at least." Looking back on tonight's defeat, Jayasuriya felt that Sri Lanka could have done much better after Kumar Sangakkara had given them a good start with his rapid innings of 66. But the turning point proved to be the departure of Mahela Jayawardene. "We started very well, and Sangakkara played very well. But to win chasing 300 you need someone to go on to a hundred," Jayasuriya said. "A few got started, but nobody went on very far past 50. You cannot afford to do that if you are going to have a chance of a successful chase when the opposition has got such a big total."

The fuss over number four There may have been much hullabaloo when Sachin Tendulkar was dropped down the order to number four, but two centuries in that position should be enough to silence much of that. Indian coach John Wright, however, does not discount Tendulkar's return to the top of the order. "He might want to open at some stage, or we might think it is a good idea for him to open," said Wright. The coach is still intent on proving that the move is one completely in the team's interests. "We are still looking at that area to make sure it works," said Wright. Navjot Singh Sidhu may still not be totally convinced of the validity of the experiment, but Wright has definitely won us over.

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