July 21, 2008	Monday	Rajab 17, 1429

COLOMBO, July 20: After wrecking the famed Indian batting line-up in the recent Asia Cup final in Pakistan, Sri Lanka’s new spin sensation Ajantha Mendis now harbours dream of scalping prize wicket of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar in upcoming three-match Test series starting from Wednesday.

Mendis created ripples during Asia Cup early this month with his ‘carrom ball’ delivery, picking up 17 wickets in the tournament. He single-handedly won the trophy for Sri Lanka by pocketing six wickets in the final.

“It will be dream come true for me to get the wicket of Tendulkar, especially when he is on threshold of surpassing Brian Lara’s world record of highest Test runs,” said Mendis.

Tendulkar, who has 11782 runs from 147 Tests so far, is just 171 short of equalling West Indian legend’s 11953 runs.

Mendis, a Sri Lankan army officer said he is pumped up to show his potential against the famous batting quartet of Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Vangipurappu Laxman, who were not there in India’s Asia Cup squad.

“Laxman, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly are among best batsmen in the world and I am eagerly looking forward to bowl against them. I will be happy to get scalps of many other Indian batsmen,” he said.

The young mystery bowler revealed that apart from ‘carrom ball’, he has developed a new delivery to unsettle Indians.—Agencies