5 times Virender Sehwag delivered brilliantly with the ball
Virender Sehwag - one of the finest openers ever to don the Indian colours was a class apart when it came to decimating the opposition bowling attack. A combination of fearless batting style, picturesque strokeplay, and sublime timing, he was a nightmare for the oppositions.
He has given some hard times to some of the most dreadful bowlers the world has ever seen in the almost single cricket playing nation and provided India with some excellent knocks in all formats of the game.
Amidst the trademark cover drives, uppercuts and hitting sixes whilst batting at 99 and 299, there have been times when he contributed quite significantly with his useful traditional off-spin in ODIs and Test matches. Although sparingly used, Sehwag was a conventional part-time off-spinner who could provide useful breakthroughs in the need of the hour
Sure, 96 wickets in 251 ODIs and 40 scalps in 104 Test matches don't seem a lot but most of these wickets came when India needed to break a budding or already set partnership. On numerous occasions, he provided breakthroughs by utilizing the nature of the playing conditions to an optimum extent that led to India's victory.
In this piece, we'll have a look at five instances when Sehwag weaved his magic and spun the opposition.
#5 Proclaiming his belonging to the international level
(vs Australia, 2001)
Playing his fourth ODI match for India, Sehwag had to prove his worth in an already star-studded team that consisted of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. In the 1st ODI vs Australia in 2001 at Bengaluru, Sehwag played the role of an all-rounder to help his team secure a crucial win.
With the bat, he contributed a crucial knock of 58 that helped India set up a target of 316 runs. When Ganguly handed him the ball, he dismissed the southpaw Matthew Hayden who was looking dangerous at 99 by a swift delivery that Hayden couldn't pick and got LBWed. In his next over, he sent Damien Martyn packing. Steve Waugh and Gilchrist continued to fight but Sehwag scalped the former to help India take firm control.
Sehwag registered a match-winning spell of 9-0-59-3 and India went on to win the match by 60 runs.