December 28, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 17, 1428

MELBOURNE, Dec 27: Sachin Tendulkar’s misjudgement to throw away his innings with another impressive century beckoning could be the turning point in India’s opening Test against Australia, the batsman admitted on Thursday.

The sublime stroke-maker with a record 37 Test hundreds cruised to 62 off 77 balls as his team-mates flailed around him, and looked all set for another century in reply to Australia’s first innings total of 343.

But he was bowled by Stuart Clark just when it appeared he was building a big partnership with Saurav Ganguly.

And Tendulkar agreed his dismissal was a turning point which India may never recover from in the opening match of the four-Test series.

“I would say so. If we had converted that partnership into a big partnership it could really make a huge difference to the lower batting order and that was an important wicket,” Tendulkar said.

“I was disappointed. I knew there was 10 minutes left before tea and the idea was to play out a few balls and I misjudged that. It came a bit slower than I expected off the wicket.

“I went in with a positive frame of mind and I decided if the ball was there I would put it away. The ball came a bit slower than I expected. That was the reason.

“Yesterday we were in a good position and today it’s not the same for us,” he said.—AFP