Sublime Sehwag
Mumbai: If violence could ever be pleasing to eyes, it can only be on a cricket field. And Virender Sehwag is one of its finest exponents in contemporary cricket.
Forget spectators for a while, some of the former cricketers of distinction were glued to their seats, watching the Nawab of Najafgarh in one of his wonderfully violent mood. One has rarely seen a piece of willow flattening the morale and courage of 11 men so decisively.
Men of cricketing honours, who describe the game to millions of television audiences, had decided to throw their equanimity and poise out of the window for a while; such was the brilliance and audacity of Sehwag’s knock of 293.
“Everyone in the commentary box was just stunned and amazed at what he did. To carry on like that for so long was unbelievable. The audacity and tempo with which he was batting, carving out reverse sweeps and a wide array of shots, was amazing. I don’t think I’ve seen an innings with so much audacity and dare,” said the usually unflappable Ravi Shastri, former India captain.
The sentiments weren’t any different for India’s former leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, “All of us were simply glued to our seats while watching him bat. We commentators were not even talking to each other because something like this doesn’t happen every day. We were all going crazy, watching Sehwag hitting the ball out of the park. We all were at the edge of our seats to find out what’s going to happen next.”
So, was it that the Lankan bowlers decided to bowl all the bad balls of their careers on that day? “No ways! Sehwag made the balls look bad. There were a lot of balls he hit from the good-length area, which was quite incredible,” said Sivaramakrishnan.
Shastri had his very own explanation. “The problem with him is that his bad balls are good balls for other players.” If only that’s a problem.
Muttiah Muralitharan, perhaps the greatest off-spinner of all time, never looked so ordinary for so long. Five spells of 18 overs in a day without a wicket is something that mustn’t have happened to Murali very often. With 788 Test wickets in his kitty, he averages six wickets in a game, but day-two of Mumbai Test was different. On the day, Sehwag’s willow was getting its fuel straight from Tarapur nuclear plant; Murali had no chance.
“I have never seen Murali struggle so much, Sehwag never allowed him to settle down,” said Siva.
The most remarkable aspect of Sehwag’s sublime knock, the second fastest innings of 250 plus runs, was the way he paced it. He gave the first hour to the bowlers and then discarded benevolence like a sweaty pair of gloves and plundered the Lankan attack with impunity. No wonder, Siva rated the knock as the best he had seen from Sehwag.
“I thought it was the best innings I’ve seen from him. I saw the triple hundred in Chennai but here the pitch was totally different and he adapted extremely well. The bowlers had no answer at all. As a bowler you think that if a batsman is playing so many shots, somewhere around the corner you will have a chance to get him out but he was simply amazing.”
One wonders why Sehwag doesn’t bring along his discretion to the field while donning the blue jersey. He averages only 33.98 in ODI as against 50.46 in Test. Siva has an answer to that.
“He likes to give the team momentum in a quick time in the limited over’s game, so he plays more shots in the One-day format. He thinks that if he can score 40 in the first 10 overs, the team will have 80 on board and that’s the kind of start he looks to give the team always. But we’d like him to bat for 30 odd overs, as it will help India to post a total of 300 plus easily.”
Being an impact player, Shastri sums up the influence Sehwag’s batting has on the team’s performance. “What he does is he sets the tempo. He set up the game so well for India with the damage he did on day-two that now they can afford to take their time. That’s the effect he has.”
Does his batting remind of any great batsman of the past? Shastri is quick in his reply, “Sehwag reminds of Sir Vivian Richards. Just like Richards, Viru is daring, confident and intimidating. He is an impact player and has a devastating effect on the opposition. In fact, if he knows a bowler is not good enough to challenge him, he’ll smash him, much like Richards did in our times.”
So how do oppositions plan to bowl to Sehwag? Russel Arnold, former Sri Lankan all-rounder, who has suffered at the hands of Sehwag, said: “It’s very tough (to plan to bowl to him) because he is solid in defense and he can play all over the park. What he does is he tries to attack the bowlers before they can even settle in and that makes it very difficult. And the way he uses his hands and feet makes him innovate to a great extent. When you’re up against that, you’re hoping for a lot of luck.”
When Murali held on to the catch after fumbling in the first attempt, the disappointment was writ large on Viru’s face. After going wicketless on the previous day, Murali had bagged the most-prized wicket. And the veteran of 17 years of international cricket was ecstatic like a school boy, celebrating the dismissal. Crestfallen, Sehwag made the walk back, stopped for a while to acknowledge the standing ovation of the crowd, and then disappeared into the dressing room. It must have surely hurt but he was not showing.
“It was a big disappointment for everyone and the man who’ll be the most disappointed is Virender Sehwag himself. Nobody has got three triple hundreds in Test cricket and he’ll rue missing out on it. But hopefully, he’ll do it next time,” Siva hoped.
Leave aside the disappointment for a while for what preceded it was pure bliss. “It was a special innings and we were lucky to witness it.” Russel Arnold was spot on.
