Line & Length
R Mohan
Sehwag comes back, and spectacularly
April 04, 2008
It took him only two Test innings to transform from a batsman riddled with self-doubt to an opener with a legitimate claim to be one of the country's all-time greats. And, as Frank Sinatra put it in his inimitable style, Sehwag could well sing - "I did it my way."
Some of the lyrics of the song may help capture the Nawab of Najafgarh best - "For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught." He used his exceptional talent to redefine the frontiers of batting while quelling doubting selectors and carping critics, all the time batting in his own way.
The day he fashioned the second innings epic at Adelaide, Sehwag had already made a very intense statement. He was no more just the swashbuckling batsman with more bravado than good sense. His innings screamed the message that he had to be taken very seriously.
In Chennai, he took that message further. Sehwag had arrived once again on the world stage, not just with a determination to prove detractors wrong. He had demonstrated that he is the perfect prototype of the modern batsman who can effortlessly mix limited-overs improvisation with the discipline of a five-day Test effort. A sub run-a-ball 300 is the equivalent of Roger Bannister's four-minute mile. It is a defining moment of modern cricket that has such batsmen who can make runs as if they are athletes running on a full tank of adrenaline.
While the chances are that the mark, 300 off 272 balls, will stay for a while on the record books, what is certain is the one who breaks it will be a similarly equipped batsman who can see out the new ball while restraining his own ability to take it apart and then set about inventing strokes against the others in order to score quickly.
Not many can combine the two styles of batting as Sehwag seems to do so naturally - attack the new ball when he wishes as if he were a one-day opener and then switch down to a safety first while negotiating his way to a first hundred, batting almost like a Test purist until the urge to attack takes precedence again.
If there is a ball to be hit, such batsmen do tend to get more than their share of bad balls because the bowlers are under so much pressure to contain, Sehwag simply wades into it. Having done just that, he spoke eloquently on the second day of his long effort that he has been making a conscious effort to eliminate some of the risks against the new ball so that he does not throw it away in derring-do.
The real blaze came in a spell of 100 runs between 150 and 250 in a mere matter of 53 balls. He got past a mark that he had already twice crossed in Tests and then got a little coy in playing on to prove that he was capable of taking in another 300, comfortably but sedately. Such a rare feat, only twice crossed in tests in more than 130 years, seemed to come quite casually, yet thoughtfully attained. Such prolific deeds are not easily ascribed to Sehwag who till the Adelaide Test was not even in the running for a Test place until Jaffer's technique collapsed down under. You could easily classify Sehwag as the cheeky opener who keeps on proving that modern batting is not about footwork, not about the exactitude of technique. It's all about eyesight, innovation and inventiveness while modern bats, well fertilised outfields and shorter boundaries fetched handsome returns. Only in his case, it always comes with a spectacular touch.
Sehwag is no virtuoso; there is no technical bravura to him, and yet he can produce a range of strokes off virtually static feet few can muster. Dravid, the spectator at the non-striker's end, described it as 360ยบ batting. Curiously, the second new ball, delayed because of his pyrotechnics, was to prove his undoing.
In our exasperation at such a grand striker of the ball failing as often as he did to invite omission from the team, some even believed he had to think of a future in rebel cricket. While he believes he was motivated by a desire to prove himself to those who had dropped him, what made his comeback so dramatic was his exceptional talent had found its best ally in a mind that had attained self realisation.
A time comes in the careers of big hitters when they figure out that if they can find discipline somewhere in the hinterland of their minds, they can convert their starts into phenomenal innings. Like nuclear energy, it is a matter of harnessing power, only in batting it is a matter of mind over matter. If Sehwag who has mastered his mind goes on to a triple century again, we can only consider ourselves triply blessed to be able to watch such an explosive talent.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
Some of the lyrics of the song may help capture the Nawab of Najafgarh best - "For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught." He used his exceptional talent to redefine the frontiers of batting while quelling doubting selectors and carping critics, all the time batting in his own way.
The day he fashioned the second innings epic at Adelaide, Sehwag had already made a very intense statement. He was no more just the swashbuckling batsman with more bravado than good sense. His innings screamed the message that he had to be taken very seriously.
In Chennai, he took that message further. Sehwag had arrived once again on the world stage, not just with a determination to prove detractors wrong. He had demonstrated that he is the perfect prototype of the modern batsman who can effortlessly mix limited-overs improvisation with the discipline of a five-day Test effort. A sub run-a-ball 300 is the equivalent of Roger Bannister's four-minute mile. It is a defining moment of modern cricket that has such batsmen who can make runs as if they are athletes running on a full tank of adrenaline.
While the chances are that the mark, 300 off 272 balls, will stay for a while on the record books, what is certain is the one who breaks it will be a similarly equipped batsman who can see out the new ball while restraining his own ability to take it apart and then set about inventing strokes against the others in order to score quickly.
Not many can combine the two styles of batting as Sehwag seems to do so naturally - attack the new ball when he wishes as if he were a one-day opener and then switch down to a safety first while negotiating his way to a first hundred, batting almost like a Test purist until the urge to attack takes precedence again.
If there is a ball to be hit, such batsmen do tend to get more than their share of bad balls because the bowlers are under so much pressure to contain, Sehwag simply wades into it. Having done just that, he spoke eloquently on the second day of his long effort that he has been making a conscious effort to eliminate some of the risks against the new ball so that he does not throw it away in derring-do.
The real blaze came in a spell of 100 runs between 150 and 250 in a mere matter of 53 balls. He got past a mark that he had already twice crossed in Tests and then got a little coy in playing on to prove that he was capable of taking in another 300, comfortably but sedately. Such a rare feat, only twice crossed in tests in more than 130 years, seemed to come quite casually, yet thoughtfully attained. Such prolific deeds are not easily ascribed to Sehwag who till the Adelaide Test was not even in the running for a Test place until Jaffer's technique collapsed down under. You could easily classify Sehwag as the cheeky opener who keeps on proving that modern batting is not about footwork, not about the exactitude of technique. It's all about eyesight, innovation and inventiveness while modern bats, well fertilised outfields and shorter boundaries fetched handsome returns. Only in his case, it always comes with a spectacular touch.
Sehwag is no virtuoso; there is no technical bravura to him, and yet he can produce a range of strokes off virtually static feet few can muster. Dravid, the spectator at the non-striker's end, described it as 360ยบ batting. Curiously, the second new ball, delayed because of his pyrotechnics, was to prove his undoing.
In our exasperation at such a grand striker of the ball failing as often as he did to invite omission from the team, some even believed he had to think of a future in rebel cricket. While he believes he was motivated by a desire to prove himself to those who had dropped him, what made his comeback so dramatic was his exceptional talent had found its best ally in a mind that had attained self realisation.
A time comes in the careers of big hitters when they figure out that if they can find discipline somewhere in the hinterland of their minds, they can convert their starts into phenomenal innings. Like nuclear energy, it is a matter of harnessing power, only in batting it is a matter of mind over matter. If Sehwag who has mastered his mind goes on to a triple century again, we can only consider ourselves triply blessed to be able to watch such an explosive talent.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
