Tendulkar steers his team to victory with a ton

Indian batting star, Sachin Tendulkar, steered his team to a exciting ten-runs win over Rest of India with a sterling 117, despite running high temperature, in the former Mumbai spinner Ravi Thakkar's benefit cricket match at Thane on Saturday.

Batting first, Tendulkar Eleven, scored 298 allout in 35 overs with Jatin Paranjape getting 50 apart from Tendulkar's ton while Indian new ball bowler Zaheer Khan picked up three for 42 for the Rest of India team led by Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid.

Despite a quick fire 73 by Sunil Joshi and patient knocks of 56 and 42 by Dravid and V V S Laxman respectively, the Rest of India, fell short by eleven runs with still two overs to spare making 288 allout off 33 overs. Thakkar (two for 16) and Vinod Kambli (two for 24) were among wickets for Tendulkar Eleven.

Thakkar, speaking to PTI after the match said it was very kind of all the top cricketers especially Tendulkar, who was suffering from fever and sore throat, to participate in my benefit tie despite their heavy schedules.

"The match was a big success with nearly 25,000 people turning out to witness the match and the total collection was just over Rs six lakhs", he added.

Brief scores: Sachin Tendulkar Eleven 298 allout off 35 overs (S Tendulkar 117, J Paranjape 50, Z Khan three for 42) beat Rest of India (S Joshi 73, R Dravid 56, V V S Laxman 42, R Thakkar 2/16, V Kambli 2/24).