Tendulkar spoiling Waugh's goodbye
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Tendulkar finds his form in the final Test against Australia
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SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Sachin Tendulkar scored his first half-century of the series to put a dampener on Australian captain Steve Waugh's farewell party on the first day of the fourth and final Test on Friday.
India's master batsman ended a barren run of form with an unbeaten 73 to steer his nation to 284 for three at stumps at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
When he reached 36, Tendulkar became just the fourth player in history to make 9,000 Test runs, joining Allan Border, Waugh and Sunil Gavaskar in the exclusive club.
In-form opener Virender Sehwag (72) also completed a half-century in a 123-run first wicket stand with Akash Chopra (45) in the series decider.
The openers departed in quick succession after lunch only for Tendulkar to steady the ship with two half-century partnerships.
He shared a 66-run stand with Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid (38) and then put on 90 with Vangipurappu Laxman (29 not out) to frustrate an Australian side desperate to send their retiring skipper out on a winning note.
Waugh, playing his 168th and final Test, used seven different bowlers, including himself, in the hope of triggering an Indian collapse.
Australia blew a golden opportunity for an early breakthrough when Chopra was given two extraordinary let-offs in the seventh over of the day and also missed a series of half-chances with poor fielding.
Paceman Jason Gillespie finally made the breakthrough after lunch when Sehwag edged to Gilchrist, then Lee bowled Chopra with an inswinging yorker with the addition of just five runs to the total.
Dravid, India's best batsmen of the series, continued his great run of form, taking his series tally past 500 as he and Tendulkar started to rebuild the innings. He was out lbw to Gillespie after tea.
Tendulkar, who had managed a modest total of just 82 runs from the three previous Tests, finally found his form passing the 9,000 milestone along the way.
He completed his 37th Test 50 from 100 balls in 134 minutes and survived to finish the day just 27 runs off joining Waugh on the all-time list of Test century makers with 32 hundreds.
