The “master blaster” posted his first tweet wishing the Indian team good luck for the T20 World Cup. He also posted his personal pictures taken with friends including those with film director Vidhu Vinod Chopra and ace photographer Atul Kasbekar in order to authenticate his profile. The batsman also posted other pictures such as one of him standing on a beach holding two crabs and a sleepy picture of himself.

Further tweets included one that congratulated teammate Virender Sehwag on the birth of his second child and another that revealed the status of the finger injury that he sustained during the IPL semifinal.

The response to each of his tweets was very high. Various other celebrities already on Twitter such as Shilpa Shetty and Sania Mirza welcomed him to the micro-blogging domain. Many of Sachin’s fans on Twitter immediately began following his tweets with the number of followers put at 75,000 within 24 hours and still increasing. Most of them wished him a speedy recovery from his injury and commented on his pictures.

Twitter has recently witnessed the addition of many high profile Indian celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra. Sachin Tendulkar is the latest among a list of global sportspersons to join Twitter including basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Sachin’s knock, along with Saurabh Tiwary’s score of 61 runs in 37 balls, steered Mumbai Indians to a comfortable total of 218 for seven wickets.

Virender Sehwag and Tillekaratne Dilshan’s blistering start for the Daredevils with 38 runs for the first wicket did make 219 seem like a very gettable total. But once they departed for the dugout at 26 and 17 runs respectively, the Daredevils were unable to forge any more partnerships. Other batsmen such as Farveez Maharoof(28 off 18 balls) and Dinesh Karthik(16 off 6 balls) also showed promise at the crease, but ultimately they fell short of the mark.

The Mumbai Indians’ batting saw the maestro Sachin get off the mark with a four off pacer Dirk Nannes’ bowling. In the next over,he guided one of Maharoof’s slow deliveries through mid on for another four.

Maharoof was punished in the fourth over as well, with Sachin finding the boundary four times. By then, the Daredevils had realised that their strategy of fielding first had backfired. Amit Mishra dropping Sachin on 36 did not help the Daredevils as well. Howerever, the leg spinner compensated for his mistake in the 11th over by dismissing Sachin. But the Daredevils were unable to check the Mumbai Indians’ run-scoring juggernaut as

Manish Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu (34 off 21 balls) put up a 71 run partnership.

In the process, the master blaster rewrote the record books by being the first batsman in the history of one-day international cricket to score a double century! Even as runs flowed, it was as if records too tumbled en route to the 200. One significant landmark, other than the double ton, was that Sachin also became the highest individual run scorer in a match eclipsing the previous individual highest score of 194 recorded by Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar and Zimbabwe’s Charles Conventry.

The double ton came in just 147 balls on a wicket that smiled favorably at the batsman. The Sachin extravaganza came after a sad start by India after skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat. Playing the same eleven that had tasted victory at Jaipur a few days ago, Dhoni’s hopes seemed dashed when Virender Sehwag was sent back after having allowed to hit a paltry nine. Sachin’s arrival in the middle just sent hopes flying. The confidence was all writ on his stance as he swayed his willow for neat boundary shots.

Scoring at will, Sachin’s race to the 200 run mark may be seen as game’s biggest and most awaited innings. Studded with 3 sixes and a cool 25 hits to the fence, the innings saw India zoom to a score that would give the South Africans some tough work.

Sachin’s fete came in the last over, and thus tumbled Anwar’s 13-year old record of 194 runs in a one-day international contest.

Sachin’s heroics seemed to have spurred the confidence in skipper Dhoni too, who hit a blistering 38-ball 65. India piled up a huge total of 401 for 3 in the stipulated 50 overs.

In the midst of all the fireworks, Yousuf Pathan too had a chance to party, with a partnership with Tendulkar yielding 81 runs for the third wicket. The partnership came about in just 47 balls. This 400-run innings is just the third ever for India. Karthik also saw runs coming his way as he helped himself to a career best 79 runs laced with 4 boundaries and 3 sixes.

It was Sachin all the way. Gwalior, in fact, proved to be the venue for an Indian batting resurrection by all means. A good batting wicket and Sachin’s ability to convert any ball into runs out of his willow came about after a long gap. No wonder, he reigns supreme as the cricketing world’s Master Blaster. Gwalior has cemented this fact, by standing testimony to such a flawless innings.

Overnight 213 for eight, India’s last two wickets fell in little more than half an hour following a 90-minute deferred start due to fog. In reply, Bangladesh were 21 for no loss at lunch.

Resuming at an individual score of 76, Tendulkar took just 20 balls and 25 minutes to complete his ton in the morning.

Playing their first match after becoming world number one last month, the famous Indian batting’s effort is ordinary at best against a team which is ranked ninth in ICC chart and derided by the visiting stand-in captain Virender Sehwag as an “ordinary side”.

In respond to India’s total, Bangladesh were off to a rather insistent start with Tamim Iqbal scoring all of the team’s 21 runs from 18 balls with the aid of four boundaries.

Before, Tendulkar played to a plan this morning, taking the majority of the strike against left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan and allowing Ishant to face pacer Shahadat Hossain.

Ishant failed to stick to the wicket for too stretched and 20 minutes into the morning session he edged one from Shahadat which was gladly taken by wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim.

Last man Sreesanth survived an over bowled by Shakib however was dismissed by the Bangladesh captain in his next over, offering a catch to Imrul Kayes at silly point.

The 36-year-old Tendulkar told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) he required a break from the shorter edition of the game although would be available for the two tests.

“Sachin Tendulkar preferred to be rested for the tri-series. He will play the tests against Bangladesh,” the BCCI said in a statement on Friday. Rohit Sharma was called in to substitute Tendulkar in just one of numerous changes to the 16-man squad for the limited-overs series, starting in Bangladesh from Jan. 4.

Yuvraj Singh, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ashok Dinda and Amit Mishra were in addition added to the lineup while Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Pragyan Ojha were all omitted. The tournament ends with the final on Jan. 13 with the first of the two tests beginning in Chittagong on Jan. 17.

India squad for tri-series: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Sudeep Tyagi, Dinesh Karthik, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ashok Dinda, Amit Mishra.

Sachin Tendulkar said that 50-overs cricket is becoming too formulaic because results of “close to 75% of matches” could be predicted after the toss.

His suggestion to split 50-over matches into two innings will provide similar overhead conditions for both teams. And these matches would reduce the influence of winning the toss in favourable conditions.

ICC cricket manager Dave Richardson said a trial could be introduced soon and the ICC committee is set to meet again in 2010 when the results of the experiment will be discussed.

Sachin, who was at the launch of Harsha Bhogle’s latest book on cricket—“Out of the Box – Watching the Game We Love”, said it should allow free entry to the students to convert them into fans to popularize the game.

He further said, “Going to watch the India vs West Indies Test match in 1983 at the Wankhede Stadium as a seven-year-old is deeply ingrained in my memory that the more we invite kids to the game, the more the sport grows.

The BCCI should open the gates on weekends to top school and college children to savour Test cricket live. If at least 10 per cent of them become Test fans, the purpose would be served,” he said.

While Indian Premier League’s Lalit Modi suggested that Test cricket needs to be marketed well.