'Tendulkar batted like God'

While it was Ashish Nehra who ultimately stole the thunder in Wednesday's World Cup match against England,  Sachin Tendulkar's blazing 50 did not escape anybody's attention in England.

"He (Tendulkar) batted like God. In a trance of utter brilliance, he reached 50 as if it was just a station on his way, and then, just as the journos reached wearily for the thesaurus, bewilderingly he steered the ball straight to Paul Collingwood," The Times wrote on Thursday.

"That, perhaps, is the trouble with instant brilliance: it is not supposed to last for ever," it said.

Tendulkar hit eight boundaries and a huge six that sent the ball out of the park in the match in Durban, which India won by 82 runs.

Nehra's splendid bowling too came in for high praise from the British media.

"Ashish smokes out sorry England," was a typical headline in the morningers which also said England choked again when it mattered the most.

Like other papers, The Guardian praised Nehra's stupendous spell of fast bowling. Its correspondent said: "The anti-doping unit should be alerted immediately; a cricketer surely could face suspension for having traces of a performance-enhancing drug in his name!."

"Pitter-pattering in, Akram-like, from Kingsmead's Umegeni End, Nehra found pace and, crucially, movement that for the most part had eluded England's bowlers before the daylight went and the pitch greened up in the evening air," The Guardian said.

The Times compared 23-year Nehra with Pakistan speedster Wasim Akram.

"Completely outplayed by India's fast bowlers in general and by Ashish Nehra in particular, albeit in conditions favouring the team bowling second, England are left with the colossal task of defeating Australia in Port Elizabeth on Sunday if they are to retain control over their own destiny in the World Cup," the daily said.

"It looks very much as though for England the brief bubble of hope has burst. Not so for India, virtually certain of qualifying now by virtue of a scintillating start to the game by Sachin Tendulkar, a marvellously compod 62 by Rahul Dravid and a performance of fast left-arm-over bowling by Nehra, reminiscent of Wasim Akram at his most inspired.

"Not only would it be too simplistic to say that this was a case of lose the toss, lose the match; that would be unfair to the quality of India's three fast bowlers. It was superb, Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath paving the way for the loose-limbed Nehra to sweep through the middle order."

Nehra could easily have taken all the eight wickets that remained once his spell started from the Umgeni End, so often did he hit the seam at speed around the off stump and zip the ball past the outside edge of both defensive and offensive bats.

"Three of his victims were caught behind, two more caught in the slips. His second, Alec Stewart, was leg before first ball to a ball pitching on the stumps, bouncing high enough to be close.

"Nehra dismissed Michael Vaughan, caught behind, soon after to bring Andrew Flintoff to the middle, there to bat almost as well as he had bowled", the report added.