|
|
|
|
|
Thu, 03 Dec, 2009,04:15 PM |
| . |
Virender Sehwag stamped his class in Mumbai completing a quick-fire double century against Sri Lanka on the second day of the third and final Test. Sehwag scored runs at will scoring boundaries and sixes at will against Muralitharan, Welegadara and Herath. It was Sehwag's sixth double hundred. |
| . |
India's opening combination changed but the assault that Virender Sehwag and M Vijay launched on the Sri Lankan bowlers bordered on the sadistic and the speed with which the runs came put India near a position where they could think of not having to bat again. Gautam Gambhir wasn't missed at all, the runs flowed like the nearby sea at high tide and the field seemed to have more holes than Swiss cheese. Twenty-six fours and six sixes were hit off only 39.1 overs in the 221-run opening stand, which took a carrom ball from Rangana Herath to break.
Nothing, though, told the story like Muttiah Muralitharan's plight. He was the last of the specialist bowlers tried, in the last over before lunch. By that time Sehwag had already reached his fifty and India had scored 85 in 17 overs. He bowled the first ball with a long-on in place and never looked like creating any opportunity in 10 succeeding overs and his success, or lack of it, summed up Sri Lanka's fortunes.
When Murali started his ninth over, Sehwag had reached 110 off 107 deliveries, Vijay 83 off 111, and India 198 in 36 overs. Murali bowled a doosra, Sehwag took his front foot out of the line, and lofted it over extra cover.
If Sehwag was his natural innovative, aggressive self, Vijay, playing his second Test - both because of an absent Gautam Gambhir - came close to matching him stroke for stroke at times. He didn't try the outlandish, rather went to playing second-fiddle - at a strike-rate of 72. His flick off the pad was the standout shot, right from the first over when he deposited an inswinger from Chanaka Welegedara to square-leg boundary. The cover-drives, rather just pushes, were elegant, and the lofted six to get to fifty just seemed a response to Sehwag's straight six a couple of overs ago.
|
|
|
| |
|
