Tendulkar fails as Englandpress for victory

England captured the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar during a tense afternoon session on the final day of the first test against India at Lord's on Monday. Tendulkar, whose highest score in nine innings at Lord's is only 37, fell lbw to James Anderson for 12 after a laborious 85 minutes. At tea India, set a world record 458 to win, were 218 for five with a minimum 44 overs remaining in the 2,000th test and the 100th between the two countries. Suresh Raina, who was dismissed for a duck in the first innings, played freely in contrast to Tendulkar's introspection to reach 54 at the interval with eight boundaries. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on 16.


Tendulkar, 38, who has scored a world record 14,738 test runs, received a standing ovation from a capacity Lord's crowd, some of whom had been queuing since three a.m for the 20,000 tickets on sale. He eased his eighth ball from Anderson through mid-wicket for a boundary and went to lunch with his score on seven after India had lost two wickets in eight balls.
After the interval, Tendulkar survived an lbw appeal on 11 from Stuart Broad which television replays showed was fully justified. The Decision Review System (DRS) is not being used for lbws in the four-match series because India object to the ball-tracking technology. He was then becalmed on 11 for 48 minutes and dropped on 12 by England captain Andrew Strauss off Anderson.
Two balls later Anderson struck Tendulkar on the pads again and this time Billy Bowden upheld the appeal, ending the Indian maestro's hopes of scoring an unprecedented 100th international hundred at the home of cricket. After India resumed on 80 for one on Monday morning, Anderson removed the adhesive Rahul Dravid (36) and the prolific Vangipurappu Laxman (56). Graeme Swann captured the other wicket to fall in the opening session, dismissing Gautam Gambhir lbw for 22.
Dravid, who batted for 5-1/2 hours in his unbeaten 103 in India's first innings, was caught behind by Matt Prior on Monday pushing at a delivery which moved away from the right-hander. He had been dropped on 35 by Ian Bell off Chris Tremlett after a thick inside edge on to his pad ballooned to short-leg. Bell leaped high and got his fingers to the ball but could not hold on to a difficult chance.
Laxman edged a boundary off Anderson at catchable height between second slip and gully but was otherwise untroubled. After resuming on 32, he reached 48 when Prior and the England slip cordon went up for what they thought was a catch behind. Captain Andrew Strauss called for a review when umpire Bowden did not react but the replay showed there was a clear gap between bat and ball.
Laxman reached his 53rd test half-century with a leg glance to the boundary, his eighth four, but then played a loose shot to Anderson and was caught by Bell at mid-wicket.

England first innings 474-8 declared (K. Pietersen 202 not out, M. Prior 71, J. Trott 70; Praveen Kumar 5-106)
India first innings 286 (R. Dravid 103 not out)
England second innings 269-6 declared (M. Prior 103 not out, S. Broad 74 not out)
India second innings (overnight 80-1)
A. Mukund b Broad 12
R. Dravid c Prior b Anderson 36
VVS Laxman c Bell b Anderson 56
G. Gambhir lbw b Swann 22
S. Tendulkar lbw b Anderson 12
S. Raina not out 54
MS Dhoni not out 16
Extras (nb-5, lb-5) 10
Total (for five wickets, 81 overs) 218
Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-94 3-131 4-135 5-165
To bat: Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, I. Sharma, P. Kumar
Bowling (to date): Anderson 21-4-55-3, Tremlett 17-4-32-0
(5nb), Broad 16-4-39-1, Swann 22-3-64-1, J. Trott 2-0-11-0, K.
Pietersen 3-0-12-0

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters)