Bating on 195, what would you do when you get a full toss ball aimed at your middle stamp? Most reasonable players would choose to take their time when the team is already three wickets down after losing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Not if you are Virender Sehwag.
This is exactly what they were looking to do on December twenty-six. Only too many of them, including the author, were looking to reach that aim by the shortest possible route. Both teams had their strongholds – India with a draw in Brisbane and Australia snatching a win in Adelaide. The decline of the Australian populace from that point was sealed, and win they had to. The third Test of the series was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which commenced wth suslaw Ganguly winning the toss and e;ecting to bat first. And then Sehwag cut loose.
Sehwag had the best possible first wicket partner in Aakash Chopra who was an opener of the traditional type who would rather play out the new ball. Having being helmeted by bouncers from Brett Lee, twice and the second time quite painfully, did not daunt Sehwag in any manner. His punches off the back foot through the covers, his clean hits down the ground and his flicks through mid-wicket, all bore the stamp of a full blown attack from an opener with something to prove.
Sehwag’s stroke play on that particular day carried all the typical strokes including his range of covers with his legs present nowhere near the ball. But it was bad for the bat as basically this bat was swinging such that the ball must have crossed the infield of MCG which was under reconstruction at that time.
Sehwag brought up his fifty in 78 balls and went onto cross the mark of 100 in his fifth Test match on flicking the ball toward mid-wicket off 144 balls. This was the 4 opening test match centuries for him in his career.
After having scored 150 in just 200 balls, Sehwag seemed set to score his first double ton with a massive total until Aussie part time bowler Simon Katich came out with a full toss on the middle stump that was begging to be hit. Sehwag’s alegría: an opportunity to score 200 for the first time and no other than from a 6 at that. He did his routine shake of the bat and although it was a little late, he managed to overshoot straight into the hands of Nathan Bracken who was the only defender on the back square.
Sehwag’s whiplash of 195 runs came off 233 balls with 5 sixes and 25 fours in the accumulation. Sehwag later said unsurprisingly in a predictable fashion that he will make that stroke again, regardless of the implications which were how much the score would be at that time.
