Pakistan v India, 1st Test, Lahore, 3rd day

Sehwag's scorcher

On the ball with S Rajesh and Arun Gopalakrishnan

January 15, 2006

On the first day of the Test, Younis Khan had showed just how much he loves stroking the ball through the off side. Today, it was Virender Sehwag's turn to become off-side king, and the Pakistan bowlers' turn to suffer. The wagon-wheel shows just how unstoppable Sehwag was on that side of the wicket, getting 74% of his runs there.

The feature of his innings was the ease with which he peppered the boundary boards on the off - 15 of his 20 fours came in that region, from upper-cuts to third man, glides and square-drives through backward point, and crunching drives through cover.

Shoaib did bother him occasionally with short balls aimed at the body, but even against him, Sehwag scored a run-a-ball 19. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan vanished for 41 from 34, while Mohammad Sami conceded 27 from 24. And though Sehwag carved the bowling, he was also selective in his strokeplay: the 29 short balls were dispatched for 38 runs, but he didn't venture to attack the seven bouncers that were bowled to him.

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