Turbo-charged Sehwag knows but one way
As they walked back for a cuppa at the tea break on the Sunday in the Chennai Test against England, India’s vice-captain Sehwag ran up to Zaheer Khan, ruffled his hair in an acknowledgement of the left-arm paceman’s work in the quarter hour to the interval when he first trapped Paul Collingwood lbw and then castled Graeme Swann and Steve Harmison.
It is quite possible that he decided then that he had to come up with something more special to complement the effort of India’s fast bowlers. And the Sehwag Effect was there for all to see, audacious strokeplay that would have made England captain Kevin Pietersen resist the temptation to nibble at his finger-nails and wonder if his team had not done enough.
There is no doubt that the reason Pietersen delayed the declaration of second innings would have been the fact that Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood were unable to up the scoring rate significantly on Sunday morning. I suspect that the other reason would have something to do with a certain swashbuckling batsman called Virender Sehwag.
With a breathtaking knock of 83, he has now given his team hope that 387 could be chased down, even on a wearing track. And all those reaching for the record books to retell dismal tales of how this was too tall an ask were made to wait just that bit and come to the edge of their seats - both in the MA Chidambaram Stadium and in their drawing rooms.
The fours and sixes flowed from Sehwag’s blazing blade, causing the England camp to worry a great deal but giving the Indians - beyond the dressing room as well - reason to cheer and believe that the target was achievable. More importantly, for the time he was at the crease, he made us forget the fact that the track afforded the off-spinner a great deal of encouragement.
Of course, his ability to take the pitch and the match condition out of the equation when he is at the crease can be a double edged weapon. If he gets bat to ball, even the riskiest of strokes looks worth the risk. The steer that he played of Steve Harmison in the fifth over of the innings teasingly brushed Alistair Cook’s fingers in gully.
Then again, if he loses his wicket early and exposes an out of form Rahul Dravid to fresh bowlers, India risks opening up the middle-order for exploitation. But that is something that Team India has come to terms with long before Dravid set off on that quest for the kind of form that makes his wicket such a prized one for the opposition.
Yet, quite a few fans do not concede Sehwag the right to approach batting the way he does.I was co-anchoring a show on All India Radio when a caller suggested that Sehwag must bat like in a Test match and show patience. In just the previous Test last month, Sehwag had savagely reduced Australian bowlers to the knees with a blitz on a sluggish track in Nagpur. Quite clearly, he knows no other way and his team has obviously empowered him to bat as freely as he can.
Former Test cricketer Rakesh Shukla recalled an instance when he was travelling with the Delhi team as a selector and Sehwag was captain. The opener had showcased his characteristic brilliance by lunch and a whole lot people advised him to keep his wicket intact since he had already inflicted considerable damage on the opposition.
When the game resumed, Sewhag danced down the track and holed out to the man at deep-midwicket. He walked back, grinned at Shukla and the others in the dressing room and said “Sorry, the ball was there to be hit and I had to play that shot.” Simply stated, that is Sehwag for you. And when the Sehwag Effect comes into the frame, all else recedes to the penumbra.
India faces the final day challenge of getting 256 runs on the final day against an eager England side but it has nine wickets left and with a fair chance of squeezing out a remarkable win. Zaheer Khan and Sehwag have helped India rediscover the intensity that was conspicuous by its absence for most of the Test match. The question is: Can India pull off a win that seemed so improbable just an hour and a half before the Sehwag Effect was unfurled on Sunday?