Bengaluru, Oct 11:Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar scored his 49th Test century to take India to within 43 runs of Australia’s first-innings score of 478 at the end of Day 3 in the second Test of the two match series.

Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 191 as the home team reached 435-5 at stumps. He struck 22 boundaries in his unbeaten 319-ball innings and brought up his century with a six off spin bowler Nathan Hauritz, the second big hit in his 90s.

With his 49thton, Tendulkar towers over all competition with Australia captain Ricky Ponting the next on the list of most prolific century-makers in Tests.

Meanwhile, Murali Vijay made his first Test century, scoring 139 before he was caught behind the wicket off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson. The elegant batsman, in to replace regular opener Gambhir, and Tendulkar put on 308 for the third wicket.

Johnson trapped debutant Cheteshwar Pujara three balls later when he was just on 4. Suresh Raina, who joined Tendulkar in the middle, got a good start but perished trying to clear mid-on off Michael Clarke.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was unbeaten on 11 at the end of the third day’s play.

Tendukar, who on Day 2 became the first batsman to score 14,000 Test runs, broke another record on Day 3 by making a 150-plus score for the record 20th time, surpassing Brian Lara's 19.

With two full days left, India will now try to gain a substantial first innings lead and try to put pressure on the Australians on the M Chinnaswamy track which is expected to provide some help to the slower bowlers.