Knight from Najafgarh!!!

When KP set a imposing target of 377 to India with more than 3 sessions left to play, he would have thought of fancying his chances to win the first test after a trashing 5-0 loss in the one-day series. He would have contemplated the Indian batsmen to fall prey to his spinners on a fifth day crumbling track in Madras. After sticking unflinchingly to its plans to success for three whole days, England was derailed by a force of called “Sehwag”.

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While they may sound clichéd, axiomatic guidelines are usually based on proven principles. It is said test matches are won session by session, partnership by partnership, wicket by wicket. This is often proven wrong by this Indian opener. When Indians started to chase what would have become the fourth biggest chase if succeeded, one was expecting a draw or an England’s victory at the worst scenario. But that was not be the case with “Viru’s” blitzkrieg. The match’s fate was sealed in a third session of the fourth day. He scored a quick fire 83 in 68 balls. This dazzling knock had 11 fours and 4 sixers. Even though the target was huge in the start of innings, the Indian total was hundred in 108 balls. In this process he also scored the second fasted fifty by an Indian. He made the target look very small and also ensured that his onslaught made the English bowlers go into a defensive shell.

These were the words of Andrew Strauss, who scored a century in each of the innings of the test.…Scoring was not easy on this track but Sehwag is exceptional. He always takes the game to the opposition and plays a different game to the most people in the world. It's amazing to see the freedom with which he plays, exceptionally pleasing to watch if you are not in the opposition…

Once he gets going it becomes really difficult for the opponents to bowl to him. He makes a killing out of even the slightest mistakes of the opposition. The way Sehwag bats, the opposition always has a chance to get his wickets. But in spite of his fear-less batting style he goes on the construct monumental innings. It has just become that India invariably does well when Sehwag gets going with to a flying start. His presence in the batting order takes pressure out of batsmen coming lower down the order.

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He might not go on to make more than 10,000 runs in both forms of the game like his mentor, but he can certainly steal more victories from the jaws of defeat than his mentor could and be a better match winner than his mentor. Rather than calling him the “Nawab of Najafgarh” i could rather call him the “knight from Najafgarh”.