Hamilton, March 20: The tons of batting records apart, humility is Sachin Tendulkar’s greatest asset. The best batsman of the modern era had his feet firmly on the ground after scoring his 42nd century at Seddon Park here on Friday.

Asked if he was moved by the standing ovations he got at the ground, Sachin smiled as he said, "Maybe they all think it’s my last tour," to laughter all around.

However, "I’m enjoying myself, it’s nice to be awarded one, at least I can tell my children that I got a standing ovation (abroad)," Tendulkar said after the third day’s play. Excerpts:

On his century: I thought once the new ball was taken I started timing the ball much better and after that things were different. I was quite happy with the way I moved and found the centre more often than not. Every hundred is not going to be a fluent one and you are not going to get 100 balls out of 100 from the centre of the bat. That is what Test cricket is all about. There are days that you have to work harder than the other ones. I was prepared to wait for my chance to come and eventually when I found the centre of the bat consistently I thought I was playing a different game altogether.

On the conditions: Yesterday initially it was a little difficult to get used to the pace and bounce of the wicket. It did take some time to find the centre of my bat. Later on it got better. I felt the contact was much better and gave me lot of confidence.

On his 24 tons abroad: A hundred is a hundred. The last one I scored before this one in Chennai was also a difficult one. The conditions were not in favour of the batsmen and I managed to pull it through and thought it was an extremely important hundred. On the last day of the Test match people couldn’t have asked for a better finish than that in a Test.

On the game: I think we are in a strong position now and that is what really matters to us. There is a terrific atmosphere in the dressing room. We sort of led from the first session and at this point in time we are very much on our way to achieving some good things.