Seven years ago, the man said he would do it. Today, he did it. The "he" is Virender Sehwag, the "it" is a double century. In an ODI. Which he achieved with 6 overs to spare.
Last night I was very tired and went to bed very early and slept a dreamless sleep till about 2:55am, when I woke up and was instantly as wide awake as I was going to be. Call it premonition, call it luck, call it what you will - I turned on the PC and saw that India had won the toss (again! Take lessons, MSD) and was going to bat.
For years, I played in a local league with a batsman whose appetite for gargantuan scores was seemingly limitless, except that he kept getting out. We always wondered how much Sohail Chaudhry would score if he lasted the entire 25 overs. And then one day we found out. I have always had the same feeling about Sehwag. He still hasn't ever batted for the entire 50 overs but on the day he does, I am pretty sure he will score more than the 219 runs he scored today. What a player!
The sign of a truly great man is that he leaves room for improvement even when he accomplishes the unthinkable. By not batting the entire 50 overs, Sehwag has left the door open for a few more dreams.
In parting, of all the comments I heard/read so far today, the best of them all was by someone named Jim Morrison on CricInfo's (outstanding) ball-by-ball coverage. Reacting to Sehwag's double, he wrote:
Last night I was very tired and went to bed very early and slept a dreamless sleep till about 2:55am, when I woke up and was instantly as wide awake as I was going to be. Call it premonition, call it luck, call it what you will - I turned on the PC and saw that India had won the toss (again! Take lessons, MSD) and was going to bat.
For years, I played in a local league with a batsman whose appetite for gargantuan scores was seemingly limitless, except that he kept getting out. We always wondered how much Sohail Chaudhry would score if he lasted the entire 25 overs. And then one day we found out. I have always had the same feeling about Sehwag. He still hasn't ever batted for the entire 50 overs but on the day he does, I am pretty sure he will score more than the 219 runs he scored today. What a player!
The sign of a truly great man is that he leaves room for improvement even when he accomplishes the unthinkable. By not batting the entire 50 overs, Sehwag has left the door open for a few more dreams.
In parting, of all the comments I heard/read so far today, the best of them all was by someone named Jim Morrison on CricInfo's (outstanding) ball-by-ball coverage. Reacting to Sehwag's double, he wrote:
"So, Sachin now holds the record for the SLOWEST double century in ODIs!"Priceless!
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