Sachin Tendulkar hails his century in Sydney

Sachin Tendulkar provided a masterclass of batting to give India an unexpected lead over Australia in the second Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Tendulkar defied Australia's bowling attack for almost seven hours to score an unbeaten 154 and help India to a massive total of 532.

Australia wiped 13 runs off the 69-run deficit from the first innings by the close on day three.

But they face an uphill battle to win the match with rain forecast.

Australia crushed India by 337 runs in last week's series opener in Melbourne to chalk up their 15th straight Test victory.

But Tendulkar's 38th Test hundred has gone a long way towards ruining their chances of equalling their own world record of 16.

Tendulkar smashed 14 fours and a six during a 243-ball stint that, added to contributions of 109 by VVS Laxman and 67 from Sourav Ganguly, carried the tourists to 532 all out in response to Australia's first-innings score of 463.

With India on the ropes at 345-7, Australia failed to land the fatal blow and the tourists, guided by Tendulkar and inspired by Harbhajan Singh's 63 from 92 deliveries, recovered.

Despite India's dogged batting performance, Brett Lee shone in the Australia attack, claiming his eighth Test five-wicket haul at the cost of 119 runs, while Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg each took two wickets.

Phil Jaques and Matthew Hayden led the Aussies' second innings with eight and five runs respectively before stumps was called after five overs.

"We've got through both first innings, now the mind games and tactics start - that's the reason we all play Test cricket. The next two days promise to be two cracking days.

"The first session of day four will probably be the most important session of the match. It's going to set up the whole game.

"It's going to be the tell-tale of the whole Test match.

"When Ricky (Ponting) thinks that we've got enough runs, if we bat well, then it's time to go out there and have a crack at them."

"We need to put the ball in the right areas and it should be backed by good fielding for us to have a chance.

"We believe in our ability. We knew that one bad match doesn't mean we can't bounce back. We've got faith in the team.