There can’t be a simpler approach to batting than that of Virender Sehwag’s — punish the loose balls and smash the good ones.
There can’t be a simpler approach to batting than that of Virender Sehwag’s — punish the loose balls and smash the good ones.
What can be distraughting for the opposing skipper when in the midst of such marauding is not just the galloping scoreboard but
the inability to judge his bowlers and give directions.
What he might just end up doing like Graeme Smith, is to direct his bowlers to stick to a negative line, even if it is only the second day of a Test.
But even that does not guarantee respite, rather that makes Sehwag use a different tack — like playing reverse-sweeps and reverse-pulls. Paul Harris realised the futility of such a line without the buffer of a 500-plus score and was made to look ordinary.
While Sehwag was busy accumulating his 165 at a fair clip, Sachin Tendulkar helped himself to 106 in as uncomplicated a fashion. If Sehwag was quick to manufacture shots, Tendulkar generally put away the bad ones that he was fed with.
A third-wicket stand of 249 helped take a 46-run lead by close with five wickets in hand, and India had done the first bit in an attempt to restore parity in the series.
Sehwag’s penchant for big hundreds was re-emphasised with his 14th knock of 150-plus, as was the relish for South African bowlers.
Early in the day, he hit Dale Steyn for three consecutive fours and took three fours on the off side off a Morne Morkel over, forcing Smith to station a man each at wide third-man and the point boundary.
Reaching his half-century off 41 deliveries, the inevitable 19th hundred did not come with a six as the crowd expected with a miserly Harris in attack, rather through a punched four to the point boundary off Parnell.
The Delhi batsman had the benefit of two chances — dropped by JP Duminy at slip (47) and a missed stumping chance by AB de Villiers (129) off Harris. He was finally outplaying a tired shot towards Ashwell Prince at short cover, giving part-timer Duminy a rather late chance of making amends.
Tendulkar’s 47th Test century was completed with a clipped four to square-leg off Parnell, his 206-ball vigil seeing him score 12 fours, before he was caught at slip as Harris came back to the off-stump line on Sehwag’s departure.
The dismissals of these two batsmen, as well as the cheap one of S Badrinath with a superb incoming delivery from Steyn, pegged India back a little from a situation where they were all set to call the shots.
If Sehwag could be faulted for anything, it was his refusal to complete the second run after hitting the ball in the backward square-leg region. Gambhir (25) could not reclaim his ground after responding to the initial ‘yes’, and thus the opening partnership ended at 74.
The batsman to follow, Murali Vijay, was hit on the helmet by a Morkel snorter and succumbed in his very next over. Vijay reached for the ball without adequate foot movement, which was matched by similar inertia from wicketkeeper AB de Villiers, standing in for the indisposed Mark Boucher.
The stand-in ‘keeper converted a straight-forward offering into a one-handed catch, but his team-mates were happy nevertheless.
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