New Zealand bowled to Sehwag the reputation, not Sehwag the batsman, and paid the price. Chris Martin hit him on the finger with a short ball first up, but Sehwag enjoyed their plan of bowling short on a sluggish surface, pulling and upper-cutting with ease. When New Zealand did manage to get him to fend uppishly, there was neither short leg nor leg gully. Off the 23 short balls bowled at him, Sehwag scored 39.
Martin, who had taken a quick five-for in Ahmedabad with traditional swing bowling, hardly pitched anything up to Sehwag. That hit on the fingers only encouraged him to keep bowling short. In Martin's second over, Sehwag pulled him for boundaries twice in front of long leg. It didn't help that when Martin pitched up later he was driven square for four.
Sehwag upper-cut Martin with time to spare, but Martin came back by bowling three accurate short deliveries into the rib and chest area, drawing a nod from Sehwag. The next delivery was even better, and went in the air towards the vacant leg gully.
The pitch was so slow that Sehwag once swayed out of the line of a short delivery and then nonchalantly, as an afterthought, sliced it over gully. He was waiting to tuck into the full ones, whipping the next length ball off the pads.
At the other end Gambhir, who did the dirty work in Hyderabad by scratching through for his first fifty in 10 months, looked confident. His clips off the pads went where he wanted them to, the walk down the pitch to counter swing was back, and so was the steer to third man. However, the steer, when attempted a touch carelessly, would cost him a century.
Gambhir was getting the singles that brought Sehwag on strike. It wouldn't have been a good idea to keep Sehwag away from the strike. He welcomed Vettori with a six over long-on - a mere flick that went the distance - and then late-cut him for four delightfully. He then had lunch and came back looking to feast on the bowling, taking 17 off the first two overs after the interval.
Soon, though, Vettori dismissed him for the third time in this series, the slowness of the ball getting the toe end of Sehwag's bat for a return catch. By then, though, he and Gambhir had added 100 or more for the ninth time. Still India needed to guard against the tendency to lose momentum once Sehwag gets out.
Gambhir made sure nothing of the sort happened, allowing Dravid time to get going. Gambhir brought up his fifty with a loft over mid-on, following it up by going back and cutting the same bowler, Vettori. He clipped one past mid-on, and the best of all, charged at the offspinner and merely caressed him between mid-off and extra cover.
With India one short of New Zealand's score, Gambhir chased a wide delivery from Tim Southee, and to his horror looked up and saw a fourth slip and a gully placed for that shot. It was an angry Gambhir that made the walk back, but the serene Dravid had reached 28 by then without an act of violence, without an act that would draw attention towards himself.
Ishant Sharma drew attention to himself, for the right reasons, in the morning sessions. There were three wickets to be taken before Sehwag could go out and do his thing. He wasted little time in getting McCullum, who moved a bit more freely today, out. Ishant got good bounce from lengths not quite short. One thick edge flew past gully, but the delivery immediately after was closer to the body and took the edge through to the keeper. He had New Zealand down to 165 for 9, but some lusty hitting from Southee kept India in the field longer. Southee scored 25 out of the 28-run stand with Chris Martin, but the dominant - and correct - feeling was that it was not going to be enough after the ordinary show from the top order
No comments:
Post a Comment