Tendulkar misses one milestone, sets another

ADELAIDE:  Sachin Tendulkar has never scored 500 runs in a Test series, but the maestro came extremely close to finally achieving it here Monday, eventually missing it by seven runs as he was out early on the fifth and final day of the fourth Test against Australia.

Tendulkar was run out for 13, finishing the series with a tally of 493 at 70.42, including two centuries and two half-centuries. He scored a superb 153 in the first innings here at the Adelaide Oval.

Tendulkar, however, made up for that by winning the 11th Man of the Match award -- fourth against Australia - of his illustrious Test career to set up an Indian record for maximum awards. He erased captain Anil Kumble's tally of 10 awards.

There was another, bigger, blow for Kumble as he lost his first Test series as captain. He had recorded a 1-0 series win against Pakistan in November-December in India in his debut series as in-charge.

Sourav Ganguly also performed below his standards as failed for the fourth successive time in the last two Tests against Australia here. His scores of 9 and 0 in the third Test in Perth and 7 and 18 here plummeted batting average in the series to below 30. In eight innings in the four-match series, the left-handed batsman aggregated 235 at an average of 29.37. He, however, scored two half-centuries.

Brett Lee produced his career best bowling performance in a Test series by capturing 24 wickets at 22.58 runs apiece to win the Man of the Series award.