Narine gets Tendulkar out cheaply on his birthday

Kolkata: `Birthday boy` Sachin Tendulkar, who had a busy day cutting cakes since morning, had a disappointing day at office with Sunil Narine spoiling his much-hyped 40th birthday party in the Pepsi IPL match here on Wednesday.

In what turned out to be an anti-climax end to his birthday celebration, the Mumbai Indians seniormost batsman`s middle-stump was shattered after being done in by a perfect off-spinner from Knight Riders `mystery` man Narine as his innings ended for a poor 2 runs from 6 balls. It was indeed a shocker for the full house Eden crowd who had come with placards and greetings to wish the maestro on his birthday. Tendulkar, who cut a 40-pound cake before the start of the match, got a big ovation when the Mumbai Indians began their 160-run chase against the Knight Riders. The fans had to wait patiently for 15 balls so as to see their idol come into bat as he faced Laxmipathy Balaji in the 2.4 overs for the first time. It was a tentative start to begin with as the ball hit his pads but it was going down the leg as there was no confusion about it. Tendulkar opened his account coming down the track to take a single off Iqbal Abdulla as he became a mute spectator at the other end with Dwayne Smith hitting the leftarm spinner for two consecutive sixes. The much-awaited battle was in store in the next over when captain Gambhir brought on Narine in the fifth over with Tendulkar getting the strike. The record-breaking Indian batsman looked in positive nick as Narine began with two straight-ish deliveries. Tendulkar lost the battle in the next ball when Narine came in with a sharp turner that beat the senior batsman`s front footed defence to gatecrash the middle-stump. It came as shock for the Tendulkar fans who would have loved to see him repeat his 25th birthday performance when he decimated the Aussie attack with a fine 134 to win trination Cup in Sharjah way back in 1998. But Eden had something else in store for Tendulkar. PTI