KEY POINTS:
India's Sachin Tendulkar overtook retired West Indian captain Brian Lara last night to become test cricket's highest run scorer.
Tendulkar, 35, crossed Lara's tally of 11,953 runs from 131 tests on the first day of the second test against Australia at the Punjab Cricket Association ground here.
Tendulkar, a veteran of 152 tests, is already the world's top scorer in one-day internationals (16,361 runs), and has more test (39) and one-day (42) centuries than any other batsman.
Tendulkar reached his latest milestone by guiding debutant Peter Siddle behind point for three from the first ball after tea to take his score to 16 and his runs total to 11955, two clear of Lara.
Three wickets shortly before tea reduced India to 4-174 and gave Australia the surprise upper hand.
On the flattest of pitches, the Indians were strolling at 1-146 before Rahul Dravid (39), Gautam Gambhir (67) and VVS Laxman (12) all fell in rapid succession to left-armer Mitchell Johnson (3-48) and Brett Lee (1-45).
Tendulkar's passage to the record had become a struggle recently, with the batsman known as "the Little Master" making just 170 runs at 17 in his last 10 test innings since compiling an unbeaten 153 against Australia at Adelaide Oval in January.
Tendulkar has been considered among the game's greatest batsmen almost since he began his international career as a 16-year-old against Pakistan at Karachi in 1989.
Perhaps the most famous assessment of Tendulkar's talent came from Sir Donald Bradman, who said he felt the Indian was the modern-day player who had come closest to matching his own technique.
"I never saw myself play, but I feel that this fellow is playing much the same as I used to play," Bradman said in 1996.
"To me it's his compactness, his technique, his stroke production, it all seemed to gel."
Tendulkar made his first test century against England at Old Trafford in 1990 when 17, and enhanced his standing by scoring two hundreds on a tour of Australia in 1991-92 while still a teenager, the second on a fast and bouncy Perth pitch that none of his older teammates could handle.
Highest run scorers:
*11,955 - Sachin Tendulkar#, India, 150 tests
*11,953 - Brian Lara, West Indies, 131 tests
*11,174 - Allan Border, Australia, 156 tests
*10,927 - Steve Waugh, Australia, 168 tests
*10,302 - Rahul Dravid#, India, 126 tests
*10,239 - Ricky Ponting#, Australia, 120 tests
*10,122 - Sunil Gavaskar, India, 125 tests
(#still playing)
- AAP
