The cricketing world farewelled one of its favorite sons over the weekend with Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar playing his 200th and final Test match. Although he wasn’t able to celebrate quite in the style he would have wanted, dismissed for 74 in India’s first and only innings, he was at least able to enjoy an easy victory over the hapless West Indies as huge crowds gathered on each day of the Mumbai Test. It’s unlikely anyone will ever match Tendulkar’s longevity. The little master debuted at 16 and played for 24 years to reach his 200 Tests – well clear of former Australian captains Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh who sit next on the all-time list with 168 Test matches each. He is the only man to score 100 international centuries and is the leading run scorer in both Tests and One Day Internationals. No doubt he will be sorely missed by the adoring Indian public.
The Sebastian Vettel show continued on its merry way in Texas as he stormed to his eighth consecutive victory ahead of Romain Grosjean and Red Bull teammate Mark Webber. Vettel has now won eight races in a row and can become the first to ever win nine in a row – as well as equaling Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season – should he win in Brazil next week.
The World Cup qualifiers threw up some interesting results with France on the verge of missing the tournament in 2014 for the first time in 20 years. In what would be a hugely disappointing result for the 1998 champions, the French have all the work to do when they return home for the second leg this week after losing 2-0 in Ukraine. Greece is on track to qualify after downing Romania 3-1, while Portugal holds the narrowest of edges after a Cristiano Ronaldo goal handed them a 1-0 win although they will be wary of Sweden and their target man Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the return leg.
In the NBA, Indiana’s unbeaten start to the season finally came to a halt yesterday as they were thumped 110-94 in Chicago to slip to 9-1. It was a huge win for the Bulls, who were sluggish to start the year but have now won four in a row to move to 5-3. The Heat, Spurs and Trailblazers continue to power along as well but the Lakers are sweating on the return from injury of Kobe Bryant after falling to their sixth loss of the season at home to Memphis.
And Adam Scott made it two wins in two weeks as he stormed to victory in the Australian Masters ahead of Matt Kuchar and Vijay Singh. Having won the Australian PGA just seven days earlier, the world number two is now well on his way to becoming just the second man after Robert Allenby in 2005 to sweep all three Australian majors with the Australian Open coming up from 28 November.
