A century of century beckons for Tendulkar<br/>

He is much too modest to talk about it, but as Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman the game has ever seen, approaches his 36th birthday next month, the incredible feat of a century of centuries beckons.

Typically self-effacing, the maestro, who has 42 Test and 43 one-day international centuries to his credit in a many-splendoured career spanning 20 years, brushed aside suggestions he had any such targets in mind after completing his masterly 160 in the first Test in Wellington last week.

"I wouldn't want to think about all those things," the humble cricketing phenomenon told media persons. "I'm a bit superstitious. Let the others count the 100s and let me go and bat."

The Master Blaster's religious disposition and superstitious bent of mind are quite well known, but his philanthropy and discreet involvement with humanitarian, especially medical, causes are not.

Given that he is just 15 short of the once unimaginable milestone of 100 centuries, there is no reason to believe the Little Master, husband of paedritician Anjali and father of Sara (11) and Arjun (9), will not achieve the feat.

Tendulkar is also reticent to prophesise where his future centuries will come from, except to say, matter-of-factly: "Home conditions, one is supposed to know them better than foreign conditions but eventually, after being around for a while, I know exactly when to pace myself and when to back off."

Australian captain Ponting is a distant second with 63 centuries.

Agence France Press quotes Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as saying about Tendulkar's hundred in last week's Wellington Test: "You can't get better than that, that's for sure.

"It's a pleasure to see him bat. Whenever he scores those big hundreds, you can't see anything better than the way he plays those innings."

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English women rule

By winning their third Cricket World Cup title, England's women have achieved what their men have never done in 30 years.

Thanks to a heroic performance by vice-captain Nicky Shaw, who was included in the team as a last-minute replacement for injured pace bowler Jenny Gunn, fancied England yesterday beat back a spirited fight back by New Zealand to win the final by four wickets with 16 balls to spare.

"I started the day crying, and finished the day crying, but we won a World Cup in between so it's all right," Shaw said.

Gunn pulled out of the team with a calf injury just before play started, which saved the winners a major disappointment.

The England pace spearhead has been banned from Australian cricket (she plays for Western Australia in domestic cricket), while being cleared by the International Cricket Council after being reported on the opening day of the tournament for a suspected illegal bowling action.

Nicky Shaw, named the Player of the Day, "proved a point" in her own words, when taking a career-best four for 34 and scoring a courageous 16 not out to guide her team to victory when the England wickets kept tumbling.

The New Zealand women were bowled out for a paltry 166, but struck back to reduce the champions to 40 for five after openers Sarah Taylor (39 off 45) and Caroline Atkins (40 off 85) got England off to a flying start of 74.

England's Claire Taylor, 33, who scored 324 runs in the seven matches at 64.8, was named Player of the Tournament.

On Saturday, the Indian team reduced pre-Tournament favourites to their worst-ever finish in the World Cup by winning by three wickets with 13 balls to spare to finish third.

India had earlier defeated the hosts by 16 runs in the Super Sixes stage of the tournament.

New ball bowlers Jhulan Goswami (two for 21) and Rumeli Dhar (two for 24) caused the early damage in the match, restricted to 46 overs because of rain, to reduce the hosts to 63 for five before they lost five wickets for just 19 runs.

Karen Rolton top scored with 52, while Indian-born vice-captain Lisa Sthalekar hit 30 and Alex Blackwell 19.
Skipper Goswami (18 not out), playing her 100th ODI, then combined with Player of the Match Dhar (24 not out) to steer India to a winning total of 145 for seven.