Wah! Sehwag
''He took a step towards cricketing greatness.''
No one else apart from Virender Sehwag could have jolted a nation out of its obsession with Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century. Between the little master’s 99th hundred this March and now, several Indian batsmen, most notably Rahul Dravid, have piled up runs by the hundreds without commensurate accolades. Sehwag has ensured, with the sheer luminosity and magnitude of his 219, the highest individual score ever in one-day internationals, that at least for the time being, the spotlight will be trained firmly on him. For over a decade now, the Nawab of Najafgarh has entertained and entranced the cricketing world like no one else. On Friday against the West Indies in Indore, he took the final stride towards cricketing greatness with a delightful compilation, joining his hero Tendulkar in the exclusive club of double centurions in limited-overs international cricket.
Having sleepwalked through the first three matches, the stand-in captain exploded without warning, producing an innings of telling finality and no little brutality. 50-over cricket is admittedly essentially an opener’s game, but it takes something special for a batsman to reach 200 all on his own in only 43 overs! International cricket has thrown up some fearsome destroyers of bowling attacks like Adam Gilchrist and Chris Gayle, but few others have been able to keep battering the bowling with as much consistency and ruthlessness as Sehwag, who also has two Test triple hundreds to his credit.
Given his seemingly high-risk approach to batsmanship, it might appear little short of miraculous that he should hold the highest Test (319) and one-day scores by an Indian, but in Sehwag’s madness, there has always been a method. An uncluttered mind and an uncomplicated approach stem from the conviction that the ball must disappear as far and as quickly as possible, and that he has both the ability and the weapon with which to inflict punishment on the bowler, no matter his calibre. Over the years, the 33-year-old has redefined the mathematical tables. He can sometimes exasperate and infuriate but the joy he provides, like he did on Friday, is hard to quantify. His innate aggression at the top of the batting tree has set up many an Indian Test victory; his increasing consistency in the shorter format, has comprehensively established him as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
