Sehwag leads commanding batting effort

FE Team | Published: June 11, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

This tri-series was supposed to test how the teams adjusted to the one-day format after the hectic pace of Twenty20 cricket but India chose to carry on in a similar vein, piling on 330 for 8. A run-rate of 6.60 is impressive in all conditions but the fact that they kept it up on a sluggish pitch that offered some assistance to the medium-pacers added more gloss to the effort, according to website cricinfo.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who chose to bat first despite the threat of evening rain, would have been heartened that the skyscraper was erected by not one, but three batsmen. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir made the most of some sloppy catching, getting within four runs of India's highest opening stand against Pakistan, before Yuvraj Singh pushed the total further.

India's fifty came up as early as the seventh over but Pakistan's four-pronged pace attack didn't start as badly as the run-rate suggested. They troubled the batsmen with swing and cut and even managed the edge on a few occasions but they were let down by poor fielding. Younis Khan allowed Gambhir two lives - on 4 and 29 - with identical edges flying past his at second slip and Kamran Akmal let off Sehwag on 43 when he lost control of the ball after appearing to have snared an edge to his right.

Sehwag, who walked all the way back towards the ropes before returning, made the most of his good fortune, racing to his first fifty in a year. He was dropped for the final stages of India's CB Series but an injury to Sachin Tendulkar allowed him another chance. He wasn't his customary buccaneering self, and that was probably because of the nature of the surface, but he continuously peppered the region behind square. Preferring to use the pace of the bowlers, he walked across and whipped a few off his pads while settling for the judicious glide on other occasions.

The area behind square was productive for Gambhir as well but it was the occasional skip down the ground that unsettled the bowlers. He didn't hesitate charging the quicker men and actually cut one over the infield, off left-arm medium-pacer Wahab Riaz, with both his feet in mid-air. The lame prod nearly got him into trouble, like it has earlier in his career, but he soon settled into milking the bowling and showed his ability to rotate strike in the middle overs.

Riaz dismissed both openers in a space of a couple of overs but went on to have a forgettable day. It was the first time he was up against top-class opposition and the wheels began to come off once Yuvraj went after him. He even let slip two beamers - the second was probably because of the slippery ball - and wasn't allowed to complete his final over. It meant he earned the dubious distinction of bowling the most expensive spell against India, conceding one more than what Ata-ur-Rahman did in Sharjah back in 1996.

Incidentally it was in that game where India passed 300 for the first time in an ODI. Here, more than 12 years later, even 400 appeared a possibility when Yuvraj was striking them clean. He gauged the slow nature of the track and ensured he played late. A couple of half-trackers were swatted away over midwicket and his neat clips towards square leg suggested a batsman preparing to explode.

With a little over eight overs left, and India looking for someone to provide the final flourish, he missed a straight one from Umar Gul. Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan chipped in with cameos but Sohail Tanvir and Shahid Afridi turned in some tight overs to 330. Geoff Lawson's aim to pound India will have to wait another day.