talking sport 620  Third Test, day two  Tendulkar delivers blast
from the past with intoxicating hit parade  Little Master falls
18 short of a farewell century but goes with a dazzling
flourish, writes Steve James   • The Guardian,   • Jump to
comments ()  Oh, he had worked so hard. Indeed Sachin Tendulkar
worked so hard that even the most fervent England supporter
would not have begrudged him a century at The Oval yesterday.
Given India's mammoth total, he may never bat in a Test match in
England again. And the knowledgeable and fair-minded crowd (or
so they were until some isolated drunken behaviour later)
recognised as much when they rose to acclaim the Little Master
as he trudged off 18 runs short of a 38th Test hundred.  It had
taken a decent delivery from James Anderson - pitched on an
impeccable length with just enough away movement to find the
edge - to dismiss him but the great sadness was that Tendulkar
had just been delving into a glorious history.  From the two
balls previous to his demise he had