India's Sachin Tendulkar hits a four during the match against South Africa at Stormont, Belfast yesterday. - AP BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP):
SACHIN TENDULKAR passed a record 15,000 runs in one-day cricket in his 93 and India beat South Africa by six wickets at Belfast, yesterday.
India reached 227 for four with five balls remaining. Yuvraj Singh scored 49 not out to go with his 3-36 in South Africa's 226 for six.
The result tied the series at 1-1 with one match to go and it was another landmark for Tendulkar.
Already one-day cricket's leading scorer, Tendulkar reached the mark when he hit the run that took him to his 79th half century.
'The Little Master', as he is nicknamed, pushed a single off André Nel to make it to 15,000.
Tendulkar, who shared an opening stand of 134 with Sourav Ganguly (42), was finally bowled by Thandi Tshabalala and has now scored 15,043 runs. He was playing his 387th one-day match, having made his debut at age 15 in 1989. Sri Lanka batsman Sanath Jayasuriya is the second on the list of one-day scorers with 12,063.
For the second successive match, Tendulkar was out in the 90s in the middle of a mini-collapse, as India lost four wickets for eight runs. But Yuvraj Singh (49 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (32 not out) shared an unbroken stand of 85 to see India home without further mishap.
A modest target
Opener Morne Van Wyk scored 82 and Mark Boucher hit an unbeaten 55 to help South Africa set India a modest target.
After a four-wicket defeat on Tuesday, India needed to win the match to keep the series alive and made changes to the line-up.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni returned for his first game of the week in place of Gautam Ghambir and India gave a one-day debut to pace bowler Ishant Sharma in place of Rohit Sharma.
South Africa brought in offspinner Tshabalala for promising all-rounder Vernon Philander. After Jacques Kallis lost the toss, however, his batsmen were in early trouble.
DeVilliers and Kallis were both back in the pavilion inside six overs as South Africa slumped to seven for two.
