***Official*** South Africa in India

[masterblaster]

An amazing day's cricket and a fantastic innings by Virender Sehwag. It was pretty much chanceless throughout and I think he's set to go tomorrow and hopefully he can come close and beat Lara's record.

You have to love his heartfelt comments towards the end of the day when Ramiz Raja asked him how did he manage to concentrate for 8 hours in the middle and he replied 'I had to concentrate, because it hurt being left out of the side'.

Now that's a sincere comment and I admire his determination in the way he's come back into this Indian test side and managed to get scores of 150 odd against Australia and 309 not out against South Africa in back to back test matches.

With regards to Rahul Dravid, yes he may not be the batsman he was but he's an absolute champion. I think he would've said to Sehwag to carry on with his aggression and that he'll hold up one end and not get out. If Dravid had gotten out shortly after Jaffer, we would not be in as strong a position.

It also is the hallmark of somebody's class when they are out of form and they are still scoring runs. Dravid exemplifies this and he's still one of the world's best batsmen and better than most because he can still manage to churn out the runs even when he's in a poor run of form.

Looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully we can get around 200 runs in front and put pressure on the South Africans.

 

[ret]

coming back to the game,

Ind has to push for a win, even though the game looks to be heading towards a draw .... on Day 4, Ind should try to bat for 70 odd overs and go at something like 5 an over, which should get it close to [470+350] 820 and then put SA in .... i hope that rest of the batsmen step it up too w/ the likes of Dhoni promoted to do some power hitting

 

[ret]

With regards to Rahul Dravid, yes he may not be the batsman he was but he's an absolute champion. I think he would've said to Sehwag to carry on with his aggression and that he'll hold up one end and not get out. If Dravid had gotten out shortly after Jaffer, we would not be in as strong a position.

It also is the hallmark of somebody's class when they are out of form and they are still scoring runs. Dravid exemplifies this and he's still one of the world's best batsmen and better than most because he can still manage to churn out the runs even when he's in a poor run of form.

Looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully we can get around 200 runs in front and put pressure on the South Africans.

Current partnership 255 runs, 53.0 overs, RR: 4.81 (Dravid 65, Sehwag 175)

it's not abt being out of form and still scoring runs but abt doing the right thing for the team .... Dravid came in when some 200 odd were on the board .... now ppl don't expect him to match Sehwag's strike rate but he should have been a little brisk

As Kumble said, some of these guys have tremendous records so have nothing to prove but to show that they can do well as a team

 

[jeevan]

Someone was going to put money on SA because they thought the odds were poorly skewed: I hope you've learnt the hard way never to question the bookies again. The developments of today couldnt have been predicted by any one of course, but the odds of it were nicely sized by the betting pros, in retrospect.

 

[silentstriker]

By balls faced, this is almost 100 balls better than the next one on the list!

 

[silentstriker]

His last ten hundreds have all been 150-plus knocks, a trot unlike any other batsman in Test history. He joined Brian Lara and Don Bradman as the only two batsmen to cross 300 twice.

Wow!

Last ten hundreds all above 150!

 

[biased indian]

ya from 2004 i think had pointed it out earlier .. and he has only 14 make it eve more intresting

 

[aussie]

Not surprised one bit at this TBH. Sehwag really is a master & smoking attacks on a flat deck (i somehow thought his double vs PAK in 2006 although in similar conditions was better than this).

Would be really good viewing if he breaks Lara's record 2moro though..

 

[ret]

His last ten hundreds have all been 150-plus knocks, a trot unlike any other batsman in Test history. He joined Brian Lara and Don Bradman as the only two batsmen to cross 300 twice.

Wow!

Last ten hundreds all above 150!

it won't surprise me if he gets another one soon

Since his comeback to team Ind, he has been exceptional with a cool all-round performance in Perth, the match-saving 150 odd on the last day at Adelaide, and now this triple which has set Ind up

 

[R_D]

wow.. what an innings by Sehwag.... has turned the match aroudn for India.
It was awesome to watch. Brilliant Sehwag.

 

[Majin]

So happy for Viru, what a gun innings from him,

 

[The Masterplan]

Anyone think he'll go on and smash 400 ? I wouldn't put it past him at the rate he's going

 

[duffer]

I don't see India declaring anytime soon, so why not?

 

[The Masterplan]

An amazing day's cricket and a fantastic innings by Virender Sehwag. It was pretty much chanceless throughout and I think he's set to go tomorrow and hopefully he can come close and beat Lara's record.

I would love to see him do it..

 

[DaRick]

Anyone think he'll go on and smash 400 ? I wouldn't put it past him at the rate he's going

Me neither, TBH. In all sincerity, I congratulate Virender Sehwag for his (chanceless?) 309*. I sincerely hope that he passes that score in the morning and then he can set his sights on the 400*. Its not that far away...

I'm not going to retract what I said about Sehwag several days earlier...his old faults can't go away with the onset of one innings (see the Sehwag vs Smith column). Boy, though, once he gets to a 100, he invariably makes his ton a big un' (having your last ten tons be 150+ is a brilliant achievement, even if he was somewhat fortunate to get that far in Adelaide). As we all know, he's also at his most lethal (but not mutually) when the deck is flat (as his 254 vs PAK in 2006 will indicate), so I did have this slight nagging feeling that he'd make a big one, given that he did against SA the last time they toured. Just not this big.

As for the match, I think that SA's chance of a win has just about flown out the window (I'm not gonna rule anything out yet). A draw still looks the most likely, though.

As for Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer, they both had a good chance to get some runs and they've both taken advantage. Good on them.

 

[silentstriker]

Anyone think he'll go on and smash 400 ? I wouldn't put it past him at the rate he's going

91 runs is a lot. India aren't declaring before Tea, so the time is certainly not the issue. I think he'll probably get out before then, but he certainly has a chance. He has to get his eye in again tomorrow and maybe some cracks will start opening. He is still pretty far away though, so I would only put his chance at about 10-20%.

Sehwag is paying 2.37 if you bet on him to score above 401. So the guys who do this are more optimistic than I am.

 

[silentstriker]

South Africa paying 101 for their win, if anyone wants to get in on it. Draw is still the favored outcome at 1.25, but India are closing in at 3.75.

 

[Sanz]

Mostly does it on flat tracks TBH.

Please dont post nonsense about the guy, esp on a day where he has scored a 300+ with a SR over 100.

Needless to say that he averages close to 60 in Aus and not all the tracks in India are flat tracks.

 

[sideshowtim]

Please dont post nonsense about the guy, esp on a day where he has scored a 300+ with a SR over 100.

Needless to say that he averages close to 60 in Aus and not all the tracks in India are flat tracks.

I have given Sehwag a lot of credit today. I have even said I hope he breaks Lara's record.

 

[Prince EWS]

Needless to say that he averages close to 60 in Aus

Due to all the runs he has scored on the flat pitches in Australia...

There is no doubting his ability to absolutely murder even the best of bowlers on really good batting wickets or even wickets which are helping the spinners, but there are severe doubts over his ability to succeed when conditions are favourable to seam bowling.

This doesn't mean he isn't a good player as scoring such huge runs against good bowling - flat tracks or not - is very, very impressive, but it does preclude him from the being the all time great his average suggests he is.