Cricket: Tendulkar adamant disputed catch was fair

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Sachin Tendulkar was emphatic: his low catch at first slip to dismiss New Zealand opener Tim McIntosh yesterday was fair.

New Zealand disagreed, but very politely.

The loss of McIntosh to the third ball of the second innings, chasing 241 to make India bat again, immediately put them on the back foot.

Tendulkar, India's rock with a fine 160 yesterday, was "100 per cent confident" he took the catch off Zaheer Khan.

"I have seen replays, and I've seen my fingers under the ball," he said last night of the television replays which appeared to cast some doubt on the catch. "Sometimes on camera it looks different. I was pretty much confident, otherwise I would not have appealed for it."

Of his century, Tendulkar thought the ball "did take time to find the centre of my bat", a view New Zealand's bowlers might dispute.

"But once the new ball was taken I was timing it much better," he said, while pointing out that "every hundred is not fluent".

However, he deflected talk of his century by putting the team first.

"We are in a strong position. That's what really matters. We have led from the front right from the first session, but we don't want to take anything for granted."

New Zealand coach Andy Moles was disappointed with the catch decision, but accepted "that's part of the game. When you're not playing well things seem not to go for you."

Moles did give his team a slap for a substandard effort.

"Hands up, we have under-performed. It's not a very good advert for the test team so far.

"There are no excuses. We haven't bowled well enough for long enough, haven't batted well in pairs for long enough and been sloppy in the field."