Mumbai-born Sachin Tendulkar reached his 41st Test hundred yesterday with a swept boundary, to guide India to a record-setting, six-wicket win over England, that was given added poignancy in the wake of the deadly terror attacks that nearly derailed the series.

Tendulkar shared an unbroken 163-run, fifth-wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh (85 not out) to guide India to 387 for four, with 20 overs to spare on the last day.

"This hundred will give a certain amount of happiness to people but what has happened in Mumbai, it's very hard to recover from that," Tendulkar said.

"I would take this opportunity to thank everybody that stood up to this and made sure that the terrorists were actually captured ... Cricket is a lesser thing compared to what has happened."

Tendulkar's composed innings contained nine boundaries from 196 deliveries. He moved from 99 to 103 with the boundary against off-spinner Graeme Swann, then leaped into the air and celebrated the victory with Yuvraj.

Returning to the Test squad after eight months, Yuvraj had some anxious moments against paceman Andrew Flintoff on a wicket where occasional deliveries kept low, but came out of his shell to pull left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for a towering six over mid-wicket.

Yuvraj's 131-ball knock featured eight other boundaries.

England had a 75-run first innings lead after scoring 316 and then dismissing India for 241, then held a commanding position when skipper Kevin Pietersen declared the second innings at 311 for nine on Sunday.

History

Only three teams in history had chased down targets bigger than the 387 that India needed to win the opening Test of a series that came close to being abandoned following last month's terror attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 171 people.

In the wake of the attacks, England flew back home after cancelling the last two matches of a limited-overs series it was already losing 5-0.

The English players and officials pondered long whether or not to travel back to India and the series went ahead only after the Tests were moved to venues deemed acceptable to England's security team.

After such a tension-filled build-up, the match evolved into a gripping contest in which master batsman Tendulkar applied the finishing flourishes.

Special victory

"This is surely a very special victory. Scoring 387 is special on a track where the ball is bouncing and jumping," said Tendulkar.

"I think this is a very, very important hundred because to me the hundred becomes very special when the team wins," he said. "At no stage we felt this target was beyond our reach. We expected runs to come if we were prepared to play our shots on this track."

"We sought to put the bad balls away. Yuvraj played one shot that rose sharply and went between midwicket and long-on. I told him to ensure that we stayed together till the end," Tendulkar said.

Yuvraj acknowledged he had relied on Tendulkar's experience and guidance.

"Sachin asked me to play my natural game and not to get bogged down," Yuvraj said. "I used to dream that one day I'll win a Test match alongside Tendulkar. My dream has now come true."

England captain Kevin Pietersen said his players were stunned.

"Can you write Sachin Tendulkar's script any better? We tried everything in our means, but he batted like a superstar," said Pietersen, saying the loss from a position of dominance was "a very, very bitter pill to swallow".

"Our boys tried our hearts out, the dressing room is not a happy place," he said. "We wanted to win and we thought we were in a pretty good position to do that, but unfortunately we got pipped."

Pietersen said both teams should be proud at the manner in which they played the Test match after the Mumbai terror attack.

"For both teams to come after that and play the Test match and put on performances like this should make them proud of themselves," he said.

Highest fourth innings chase

India's best fourth-innings total in winning a Test remains 406-4 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976. But they now have the highest successful fourth innings chase in India - surpassing the West Indies' 276-5 at New Delhi in 1987.

India's best effort in winning a Test match at home when batting fourth was 256-8 against Australia at Mumbai in the 1964-65 series, but it did make 347 in the tied Test here against Australia in 1986.