Sachin satisfied with ton, but has no point to prove

Chittagong, May 19 (UNI) Dedicating his 36th ton to his father, Little Master Sachin Tendulkar today said even though it was satisfying to get the century he had no point to prove.

Talking to the media after the end of the day's play, Sachin said, ''It is really good to get a century after a long time. It's always important to score a hundred.'' ''After South Africa we have not played Test cricket for a long time. I was looking forward to playing here. The century has come at the right time. I am looking forward to playing such important innings in future,'' Sachin, who scored this century agsinst Bangladesh after a wait for 17 innings since his last one in 2005 December against Sri Lanka, said.

However, he quickly added, ''I had no point to prove. After so many years I don't think I have any point to prove.'' Sachin scored 101 runs off 169 deliveries with nine hits to the fence.

Asked about the plan they followed, ''The plan was to score quick runs. The target was to achieve four and half to five runs an over.

Thus I got out mistiming a ball.'' On whether he wanted to dedicate this innings to anyone, he said, ''I would like to dedicate this to my father as it was his eighth death anniversary recently.'' Sachin further said it was a pleasure to bat with former captain Sourav Ganguly. ''It's always a pleasure to bat with Sourav. We have been together for so many years now. Sourav is a wonderful player.

He knows how to take runs and it's a pleasure to bat with him.'' ''We enjoyed our innings. We had fun in the middle. The idea was not to let the mind get bogged down. We basically remained focused and faced the balls. We tried to keep each other going. The conditions were tough. You had to encourage each other,'' he said describing how the duo enjoyed batting in the middle.

When quizzed on how important was the century, he said, ''Century is not the only thing. How you play is more important. The way I batted in South Africa I was happy. I had a couple of 60s and 70s. I didn't end up getting a 100 there. It does not mean I was not playing well. I was quite happy the way I batted in South Africa too.'' ''I played the way I wanted to play and the team wanted me to play. Scoring hundred is always satisfying as the team wants me to do well. And every batsman wants to go out there and score runs.

Players don't play for the numbers, players go out to score runs. I am no different,'' Sachin added.

Asked about Team India's plans tomorrow, he said, ''Todays plan was to bat for four and half hours and tomorrow it will be a lot of aggression.'' On the Bangladeshi bowling attack, he said, ''They are a good side and they have shown that in World Cup. They are a very confident side.'' UNI