Tendulkar's tender touch

For almost four hours this teenager with the serene face, brought up on low, slow Indian wickets, had defied four bristling Australian pacemen on the fastest, bounciest pitch in the world with a mixture of grace and power his opponents found hard to fathom in one so young. Merv Hughes cracked open a beer and turned to his captain, Allan Border: "This little prick's going to get more runs than you, AB." Almost 16 years later, Sachin Tendulkar not only has more runs than the prolific Border, and fewer only than West Indian Brian Lara, but is about to come full circle by touring Australia for the last time. At 34, he is perhaps the summer's greatest drawcard.