Tendulkar gives as good as he gets

Sachin Tendulkar - sledger?

Not quite, but the revered Indian batsman apparently gives as good as he gets when words start flying in the heat of battle.

Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath had a running battle at SuperSport Park, Centurion, yesterday during India's innings of 125 in Australia's nine-wicket win.

"There was one pull shot he had and I just mentioned to him 'make sure you pick the right one to have a pull at' and he had a go at me for not bowling at the stumps," said McGrath, who was bowling wide outside off stump to slow Tendulkar's run rate.

"I said, 'Why would I?' You always smash me when I bowl straight.' For him to have a go at me for not bowling at the stumps meant I was frustrating him and doing my job well.

"Normally he says more to me than I say to him, I've noticed in the past.

"We get on well off the field, there's no problem, it's fun and games. I even made him smile yesterday, which was a bit of a rarity.

"Generally there's not a lot said. I love bowling to him because he's regarded so highly and I regard him so highly as a batsman."

Meanwhile, McGrath admitted he knew virtually nothing about Holland, who Australia play at North West Stadium on Thursday. To his knowledge, the Dutch were good skiers.

Jimmy Maher said he knew more about ten-pin bowling than Dutch cricketers, which wasn't much at all.

However, McGrath said Australia wouldn't be taking it easy in any of the three soft games coming up: Holland, Zimbabwe on February 24 and Namibia on February 27.

"Our plans for those three teams ... when we bowl to them, we want to knock them over as quickly as possible and really play as hard as we can and really dominate the match rather than sit back and wait for things to happen," he said.

"That's when we get into a bit of trouble. We'll just go out there and try to dominate those three teams."

McGrath said the only tinkering by Australia could be to promote Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan up the order to give them much-needed match practice after their recent absences because of suspension and injury respectively.

"Unless it's a really green wicket or something unusual then I'm sure we'll bat first," he said.

"If we bowl first and chase a small target, I can't see a problem with just changing the batting order around to give the guys a bit of a hit.

"There's plenty of flexibility in our team."