Tendulkar retires eight short of century

Sachin Tendulkar sacrificed a century to give his Indian teammates crucial batting time ahead of the Test series with Australia in their drawn tour match in Canberra on Friday. Tendulkar, poised on 99 international centuries across Test and one-day matches, retired on 92 in the tourists' 320 for six on the final day of their two-day match against the Chairman's XI at Manuka Oval.
The greatest Test runscorer hammered 15 boundaries off 132 balls as India got in precious batting time ahead of the opening Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Indians' total was in reply to the Chairman's XI 398 for six declared compiled on Thursday. V.V.S. Laxman also retired on 57 off 76 balls while Rohit Sharma remained unbeaten on 56 off 80 balls before bad weather intervened. Tendulkar's last century was 111 against South Africa at the World Cup in Nagpur last March, with his last Test century coming against South Africa with 146 in in Cape Town last January.