Tendulkar rescues India after claiming record

By N.Ananthanarayanan

MOHALI, India (Reuters) - Sachin Tendulkar eclipsed Brian Lara's world record for most test runs on Friday to help India reach 311 for five on the first day of the second test against Australia.

Tendulkar passed his target with three runs after tea to beat the 11,953 West Indian Lara scored before he retired from international cricket in 2007.

Tendulkar went on to hit 88 after Australian left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson led a splendid fightback on a good batting pitch.

India, who began well after winning the toss, wobbled after Johnson's double strike before tea contributed to three wickets tumbling for 17 runs.

Tendulkar shared in a 142-run fifth wicket partnership with Saurav Ganguly to rescue the innings from 163 for four and go past 12,000 runs in tests.

He eventually fell when he edged debutant paceman Peter Siddle to Matthew Hayden at slip off the second new ball late in the day.

Ganguly was 54 not out at the close with Ishant Sharma on two.

Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir scored 67 and added 70 runs with Virender Sehwag (35) for the first wicket and 76 with Rahul Dravid (39) for the next.