Thursday, July 31, 2008

The sophisticated slogger

"The best way to know how [Sehwag's] mind works is to sit next to him in the players' balcony when India are batting. Every few minutes he will clutch his head and yell, 'Chauka gaya' [missed out on a four] or 'Chakka gaya' ... That's how he thinks, in fours and sixes."
- Sourav Ganguly on Virender Sehwag.
Waching Sehwag bat is like watching an action movie where you do not know if the hero will survive or die. You find yourself on the edge of your seat as the thrills keep coming at a fast pace and, at the back of your mind, you know that if the hero dies, he is going to take a few bad guys with him. Last night, Sehwag gave another demonstration of his stupendous ability to hit a cricket ball. Here's the tale of the Indian innings:

Gambhir: 56 in 103 balls
Dravid: 2 in 7 balls
Tendulkar: 5 in 3 balls
Ganguly: 0 in 5 balls
Laxman: 13 in 28 balls

Contrast that with Sehwag - 128 in 122 balls, with 19 fours and 2 sixes. He is still batting but the beauty of the guy is that you never know what he will do tomorrow. (previous history does provide a very good indication of what he will do but that is neither here nor there). To think that at around this time last year he was out of the reckoning for a place in the Test squad!

A few months ago Sambit Bal wrote a brilliant piece on Sehwag. I think it merits a repeat reading - here is the article once again.

(Previous posts of mine on Sehwag here, and here.)

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