Sehwag blitzkrieg leaves Test tantalizingly poised

Chennai: One man – who literally held the key to India successfully chasing down the fourth innings target of 387 set by England – treated a Sunday afternoon crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium with a truly special innings.

No team has successfully chased down more than 276 in fourth innings of Tests in India, and that meant the odds were heavily stacked against the hosts. But Virender Sehwag, as is his natural style of batting, came out all guns blazing and took the Chepauk by storm.

He got off the mark by running down the ball to the thirdman fence, and soon added another boundary to his tally when he pounced on a short delivery from James Anderson and hammered it through his favourite area – backward of point.

That second over of the innings, which saw Sehwag scoring nine runs, set the tempo, and from there on, it was all traveling in fifth gear until his eventual dismissal – a good 102 minutes after he came out to bat.

All the English bowlers were treated with the same degree of disdain – Harmison went for 26 runs from 17 balls, Anderson 14 from 8, Panesar went for 21 runs from as many balls, Flintoff 10 from 9 balls and Swann 12 from 13 balls.

The first fifty of the run chase came in 5.3 overs, while the next fifty came in more Test-cricket-like 12.3 overs. Sehwag raced to 50 from 32 balls, narrowly missing out on registering the fastest half-century by an Indian in Test cricket – Kapil Dev had done it in 30 balls against Pakistan.

1st Innings:
ENG 316 (128.4)
R/R: 2.46

2nd Innings:
ENG 311/9 dec (105.5)
R/R: 2.94

1st Innings:
IND 241 (69.4)
R/R: 3.46


2nd Innings:
IND 131/1 (29.0)
R/R: 4.52