Will India Blame Harbhajan Singh 's Rashness If They Lose?
Whether on 0 or 99, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429’s ideology is uncluttered; if the ball is there to be hit, he will hit it. Unfortunately, what he forgets on occasions is that the opposite bowler needs to be given some amount of respect and thought before trying to slam him into the stands.
On this occasion, on the third day of the second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at SSC in Colombo, it will be easy to criticise Sehwag for the rashness of his stroke. There will be fans who may support him by saying that it is his natural game and it allows him an average of more than 50 in Test match cricket. However, one may beg to differ here. Going after the bowling is one thing, but without having had a look at the bowling and trying to dominate a debutant is just a case of being arrogant. Especially given that the team was chasing a total of 642.
Suraj Randiv was playing in his first game, and to top that, was bowling his first ball of the day. Surely, Sehwag could have looked around and assessed the bowling before going for the expansive shot that cost him his wicket? Unfortunately for India, he did not, and became only the third batsman in the history of Test match cricket to be stumped on 99. Tells you how exasperating it would be to coach someone like Sehwag!
Incidentally, this is not the first time that Sehwag had given it all away when the team needed him to stay on. There have been at least two other occasions when Sehwag had, what can easily be termed as brain-death.
The first occasion was in a Melbourne Test match in 2003-04 in a game against Australia. India had won the previous Test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and to the surprise of everyone, were leading 1-0 in the series. This was the third of the fourth Test match and India had got to 311/3 with Sehwag batting on 195. There were ten overs to the close of play and had the Indians seen them off with around 340 on the board, they could have easily dictated terms – especially if Sehwag would have remained unbeaten.
As it turned out, a part-time bowler in Simon Katich made Sehwag play across the line and to the long-on fence of the biggest cricket ground in the world. A fielder was present for Sehwag given that he had already got 195, and to clear him, it would have needed Sehwag to clear a better part of 85 yards. He failed to do so, got out just five runs short of his double century and the Indians collapsed from 311/3 to 366 all out. In turn, they went on to lose the game.
The other occasion came in the 2008 edition of the Asia Cup. It was the final of the tournament, and the opposition was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis was introduced into the attack. India had never played Mendis before, but heard about his mysterious carom-ball.
Sehwag was batting on 60 scored off only 35 balls. And what did Sehwag do then? He went down the track to Mendis and tried to deposit him to the fence, but missed the ball completely and got stumped. India collapsed from 76/1 to 173 all out and duly lost the game.
Thankfully for India, Sachin Tendulkar has done well so far to keep the side afloat, but if http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 does lose the game, it remains to be seen whether the media and the experts will be forgiving Sehwag for that rash stroke off Randiv.
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