Sehwag indeed made the difference at Chennai

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It’s not often that someone having scored an eighty is adjudged the Man of the Match ahead of two centurions. In fact England’s Andrew Strauss had scored a century in each innings and India’s Sachin Tendulkar had played probably the innings of his lifetime, scoring an unbeaten century in the second innings to guide his team to a famous victory in the first Test at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

But what a great decision it was to declare Virender Sehwag as the Man of the Match because primarily it was his dazzling knock of 83 on the fourth evening that laid the foundation for an Indian win when chasing a target of 387 on a wearing track.

It was very sporting of the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to acknowledge in his brief chat during the presentation ceremony that it was Sehwag’s innings that prompted his team to think in terms of a victory rather than settling for a draw.

It’s hard to imagine that India would have even entertained hopes of attempting a victory when their openers went out to start the second innings. Mind you the England captain, Kevin Pietersen, had declared the innings. Obviously he must have thought that the target of 387 in the fourth innings of the game was next to impossible to attain even for the best batting side in the world.

Had Pietersen any doubt or reservations in his mind he would have instructed his lower-order batsmen to occupy the crease for a longer period of time. Ideally he might have wanted to set a target of 400 but he didn’t delay the declaration once the ninth wicket fell.

Only two results had looked possible when he took out his troops to the field in the final session of the fourth day. India could have been tipped to salvage a draw if the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar spent long time at the crease to ward off the danger.

Although England had entered the game as the underdogs, they must have fancied their chances of going one-up in the series after having looked the better team on more than one count.An Indian win was theoretically possible but taking into account the ground realities it was least likely going to happen.

Everyone knew the capabilities of Virender Sehwag, who has scored not one but two triple centuries in Test cricket. He had won India numerous games in the past but was there anybody to believe that he would kickstart the big chase in such brilliant fashion.

The conditions were not ideal for batting. The England bowlers and fielders had their tails-up. They sensed victory. They would have hated to think in terms of letting India escape with a draw. The momentum was with the visitors as they thought that they had the hosts on the mat.

All it took was another Sehwag special and the mission impossible starting looking probable. He took the fight to the England camp by hammering their bowlers to all parts of the park from the outset. His flurry of boundaries made the mockery of the plans Pietersen had up his sleeves.

Sehwag’s sixes and fours changed the entire complexion of the game and by the time he was adjudged leg before, India had reasons to believe that a victory for them was now a possibility. He deserved a hundred but as we found out his 83 had done enough damage to the confidence of the England bowlers who appeared to have lost their self-belief in a matter of an hour or so.

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Tendulkar’s greatest innings yet

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It was Sachin Tendulkar’s 41st Test hundred. The great man has played many outstanding innings in his long and illustrious career nearing two decades now. But I don’t think any of his past knocks could match the greatness of one he played at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on the fifth and final day of the first Test against England.

Nothing succeeds like success. Tendulkar has thoroughly deserved all the records having come his way but a match-winning innings had become long overdue from him. He rose to the occasion to lead India to victory while chasing a mammoth target of 387 on a wearing pitch.

It was the kind of dominating innings that must have pleased his fans immensely all over the world. He has a global fan following and there had always been an air of disappointment whenever he perished without accomplishing the task.

What an innings he played. He was in total control of the situation from the moment he set his feet at the ground. It was not the best of starts for India on the final day with Rahul Dravid, who has been the architect of so many famous victories recorded by India in the recent past, falling cheaply for the second time in the match.

The M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai had witnessed Tendulkar play a couple of fabulous innings in the past as well. His knock of 155 against an Australian attack having Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in the series-decider was a truly an outstanding effort. His magnificent century against Pakistan in the 1998-99 series has also been talked of very highly even though it came in a lost cause.

But the century he has scored against England surpasses all his previous accomplishments. India needed him to fire to be able to chase a target of the magnitude of 387, a feat never achieved before.

He was involved in three productive partnerships all of which had their significance in setting up the win for India. First he was associated in a third wicket stand with opener Gautam Gambhir that kept the momentum going even after the early departure of Dravid.

VVS Laxman joined Tendulkar when Gambhir was dismissed. The England bowlers were looking threatening but neither Tendulkar nor Laxman got bogged down. Their attacking instincts kept the scoreboard moving which ensured that the asking rate never became an issue.

The real test for Tendulkar came, however, when Laxman left the scene very early in the afternoon session. It was the fourth wicket to fall and India were still 163 runs away from their target.

In came Yuvraj Singh, known more for his flamboyance than patience. The presence of an assured Tendulkar at the other end allowed Yuvraj to play his natural game that prevented England from applying the pressure.


Tendulkar was as solid as a rock but he never went into a shell. The boundaries did not come all that regularly with Kevin Pietersen deploying defensive fields but the strike was rotated once too often to unsettle the bowlers.

Tendulkar played some crisp strokes off his legs without taking chances. He was equally fluent in driving anything pitched outside his off-stump. He did also take the aerial route once or twice but they were calculated risks and didn’t do any damage.

The smile on the face of Tendulkar after hitting the boundary that brought up his 41st Test hundred said it all. Most importantly it was also the stroke that took India to a famous victory.

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