Sehwag slams second Test century
Faisal Shariff
Virender Sehwag's sparkling hundred lit up an overcast day at Nottingham, as play was interrupted by bad light twice.
At stumps, India were 210 for 4, with VVS Laxman and skipper Sourav Ganguly at the crease, and only 66 overs being bowled on the opening day of the Test.
Morning session
A watchful morning session by the batsmen saw India score 61 runs for the loss of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid's wickets, after Sourav Ganguly called right at the toss and elected to bat under an overcast Trent Bridge sky.
India lost the important wicket of Dravid before lunch, but with the wicket easing out after the initial lateral movement, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag could cause mayhem in the English camp in the afternoon session.
All of 23 and six feet four inches, the strapping Steve Harmison made his Test debut for England, as the hosts went with an all-seam attack for the first time since 1981 -- dropping left-arm spinner Ashley Giles for Dominic Cork.
The Durham fast bowler, who replaced Simon Jones -- the Lord's debutant who entangled the Indian batsmen with his raw pace -- became the 16th seam bowler used by England since Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher took over the team.
Twenty-three-year-old batsman Robert Key, who was coached by his mother Lynn, a former bowler for the women's Kent team, also made his Test debut, at the top of the order with Michael Vaughan.
In the visitors' dressing room, Parthiv Patel, a 17-year-old boy, barely five feet tall and yet to play in a Ranji Trophy game, was included in the playing eleven after Ajay Ratra, the first choice wicketkeeper, injured his big toe in the nets.
The bespectacled Patel, the youngest Test wicketkeeper ever, also became the third youngest ever to play Test cricket for India, at the age of 17 years 150 days, following Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.
A calf-strained Anil Kumble made way for Harbhajan Singh, the lone spinner on either side.
Sehwag sent a full-pitched delivery from Dominic Cork, who opened with Matthew Hoggard, screaming through the covers for four. India’s innings thereafter was as gloomy as the Nottingham morning. Matthew Hoggard, curling the ball viciously away from the batsmen, caught Wasim Jaffer playing at him with a wide fissure between the bat and pad. The ball took a faint edge off the bat and crashed into the stumps. Jaffer walked back for a blob.
Untroubled by the early loss of a wicket, Sehwag kept attacking the bowlers each time they erred in their line or length.
Sehwag is an apostle of the 'see-ball, hit-ball' theory. "When I walk in to bat, my plan is that I have to play ball to ball. I don’t plan session-to-session, or even plan ten overs ahead. Sessions are too long, I don't have the patience to think that far," he had stated in an interview.
"If there is a loose ball, even if it is the first ball I face, then I'll smash it; that is my philosophy."
And Dominic Cork, who failed to swerve the ball to the degree that Hoggard did, was primed for punishment. Sehwag slammed 27 runs off the 35 balls he faced from the Derbyshire seamer. They were spiked with five boundaries.
Dravid played perfect foil to Sehwag even as the English seamers, barring Hoggard, bowled too wide to worry the Indian batsmen. Skipper Hussain forced his bowlers to bowl a line wide outside off and check the shot-making abilities of the Indian batsmen. Debutant Harmison had a run yet to be taken off his four overs but sprayed to give the batsmen the freedom to watch the ball sail past them harmlessly. Unlike Simon Jones, Harmison does not possess a smooth run-up and was rather insipid in his first spell in Test cricket.
India managed 29 runs in the first hour of play, with Hoggard, who bowled ten consecutive overs in the morning session, giving 17 runs for two wickets.
Kent’s Robert Key got his first Test catch before scoring his first Test run, when he snapped up Dravid, who was drawn into the drive by Matthew Hoggard at first slip. The ball pitched on a good length and arched away from Dravid.
At 34 for 2, India saw Tendulkar walk out to bat, with Dravid gone for 13 and lunch 45 minutes away.
After surviving a few lbw decisions, Tendulkar, having taken a measure of the pitch, hit his straps and flicked Cork to the mid-wicket fence and pulled a shorter one from Flintoff to the fence again.
India went into lunch at 61 for 2, with Sehwag undefeated on 37 and Tendulkar on 10.
Post Lunch session
Bad light shortened the post lunch session as India reached 141 for 3, scoring 80 runs in the 23 overs it faced, for the loss of Sachin Tendulkar.
After three successive maidens after lunch, Sehwag drove a half volley from Hoggard to the extra-cover fence with a touch of nonchalance and registered his fifth half-century.
And though it may seem early days, it must be said the young opener brings a freshness to the Indian batting, where the nature of the wicket, the quality of bowlers and other such details merely form the fine copy in his batting manual. Not a finished product yet, he is surely marked for greatness.
Craig White was into the attack and Tendulkar pulled a short delivery to the mid-wicket fence. Hussain immediately incorporated the off-side trap. Two slips, a deep cover point, two gullies, cover and a mid-off choked the off-side field, leaving vast expanses of the leg-side open with only a mid-wicket and a mid-on fielder. White was instructed to bowl two feet outside off and Tendulkar was posed another Hussain puzzle to crack.
Sehwag though had little trouble in finding his route through the poser as he rolled his wrists and played Hoggard past square leg to bring up the 50-run partnership for the third wicket.
15 runs came in the following over from White and the Indian batting finally seemed to be dominating the afternoon.
Tendulkar welcomed Cork back into the attack, driving him straight for four. It looked as if a vintage Tendulkar classic was about to unfold. But, a minute later, he shaped up to pull a delivery wide outside the off-stump through the vacant onside area and dragged the ball onto the stumps. A sub-standard Cork effort had fetched England the prized wicket of Tendulkar, for 34.
Hussain's field placements had yet again managed to defeat Tendulkar. Nodding his head all the way to the pavilion, India's master batsman had yet again been humbled by the English. Tendulkar's biggest strength -- his wide range of strokes - has become the reason for his downfall. India, at 108 for 3, were held together by Sehwag’s fluent knock.
A couple of audacious boundaries from Sehwag (85), that got him closer to his second Test century, livened a dull 45 minutes before Ganguly took the light offered to him by the umpires.
Play was called off due to bad light with the Indian score reading 141 for 3.
Hussain’s bowlers had failed to bowl with the same discipline that had pegged the Indian batsmen at Lord’s.
Post Tea session:
Sehwag whacked a lovely cover drive for four and then cut a wide one for a second boundary off Harmison, as the maidens in the bowler's figures began to diminish.
The uniqueness of Sehwag goes beyond the daring cover drives that he routinely rips through. On a Test tour oozing with batting failures, he ignores the watchfulness of the senior players, coasting at his own pace. Maybe, Test cricket comes easily to him.
Moving into the nineties tests the nerves of the best in the business. But Sehwag had to possess some for them to show up. Slashing uppishly at a delivery, he was almost caught when Vaughan at point dived, got his hands to the ball but failed to latch on to it. The ball had enough muscle on it to travel to the fence. The boundary brought Sehwag his second Test century.
Incidentally, both his hundreds have been scored overseas. The previous one was scored on his debut in South Africa.
A smile flashed across his unshaven face as skipper Ganguly hugged him and the dressing room gave him a standing ovation. Sehwag had accounted for more than 60 per cent of the team score when he raced to his hundred.
Unlike Tendulkar, he had beaten the English skipper at his own game. Thirteen of his 17 boundaries had pierced the overcrowded off-side field, though the connoisseurs of the game will debate the unorthodoxy of some of his shots.
One potential hazard for Sehwag though is boredom. After having seen the challenge of the English pacers off, he played and missed at a straight ball from White.
A standing ovation greeted him as he walked back with a hundred of top quality, with the Indian total reading 179 for 4.
If Sehwag’s exploits were exciting, VVS Laxman’s batting was uncomplicated and sublime.
The Hyderabadi, who came in at the fall of his wicket, sent Hoggard through the covers for four to get off the mark and then also pulled White for four.
Ganguly, at the other end, paled in contrast despite settling a personal score with Andy Flintoff, sending his short-pitched deliveries to the fence with sheer determination instead of technical brilliance.
Laxman quickly raced away to a 27-ball 22 and Ganguly was steadfast at 29 off 68 balls when bad light stopped play yet again with India on 210 for 4.
Post script: England swing bowler Dominic Cork was taken to hospital for a precautionary X-ray on his right knee which he injured while attempting a run-out.
