Did Viru miss the Don's record yet again?

Posted on Nov 04, 2010 at 16:47

 

New Delhi: Just last year when Sehwag cracked a double ton against Sri Lanka in Mumbai at an astonishing pace, a blogger remarked that his "scoring rate was as fast as Vishwanathan Anand's, Nigel Short's or Gary Kasparov's thinking process".

Thursday at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, Sehwag decided to better that as he plundered runs against a hapless New Zealand attack on a track that is as placid and slow as they come. And while the scorecard will say that he missed out on his double hundred by 27 runs, one believes he missed out on yet another opportunity to better Don Bradman's record haul of 309 runs scored in a single day and become the first man ever to hit three triple centuries in Test cricket.

In the Mumbai Test against the Lankans, Sehwag had scored 284 runs in a single day. On Thursday he seemed on course to go past it as he batted with his usual elan, bringing up his 50 off 49 deliveries and his 100 off just 111. When he was dismissed in the 75th over of the Indian innings, he had already scored 173 off 199 deliveries.

With the New Zealand bowlers hardly posing a challenge, Sehwag set about the run-gathering task with delightful strokeplay that included reverse sweeps and paddles, lofted drives and no-nonsense smacks straight down the ground.

Chris Martin came in for some treatment in the third over of the game itself as Sehwag hit him for three beautiful boundaries. He stood tall and drove the length ball through the covers for the first boundary. The second went past the gully with him opening the face of the bat late, while he forced the third through point with an open face.

The onsalught was so severe that New Zealand had brought in Jesse Ryder to bowl by the 11th over of the day. Sehwag greeted him with two back-to-back shots to the fence.

Jeetan Patel too came in for special treatment as he tried every trick in the book including bowling round the wicket. It was only Rahul Dravid's slow batting (he scored 17 off his first 100 deliveries) at the other end that denied Sehwag from entering the list of batsmen to have hit a hundred in the first session of a Test match.

The second session though was where he slowed down as he hit a boundary after a wait of 31 deliveries. That shot off Daniel Vettori to the mid-on fence also brough up his 1000 runs in 2010.

At the other end, Dravid struggled to pick the gaps and it was quite evident as he managed just five runs off 41 balls since lunch. Sehwag couldn't take it anymore and launched into Williamson for the first six of the match, the ball flying into the second tier over the wide long-on fence. That shot did something to boost Dravid's confidence as well as he got a move on and began to caress the ball into the gaps.

Sehwag brought up his 14th score of 150 plus in Test that brought him level fourth with Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. But he had begun to feel uncomfortable in the middle and when he walked out with his arms around Gambhir as his runner, it was clear that this was the moment that will change the game - Viru will either loft it all over the park or the niggle will get the better of him. And while one hoped for the former, Vettori castled Sehwag with a delivery that stayed low.

The end looked like a lazy and bored one. But with five more innings to go in this series, there's a lot to look forward to. Not to forget, a certain Sachin Tendulkar is at the crease and should get that 50th Test hundred to make it an incredible diwali.