Top 5 bowling efforts by Virender Sehwag
As one of the best openers in world cricket in the last decade, Virender Sehwag’s belligerence and propensity to tear down any possible bowling attack with virtually zero footwork is widely known. His excellent reflexes and immaculate hand-eye coordination made him achieve feats that others could only dream about. Such had been his promise during his early years in international cricket that the then Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly decided to sacrifice his opening spot for Sehwag.However, the more one speaks about his batting, the more are his exploits with the ball forgotten. Although sparingly used, Sehwag was a decent part-time off-spinner who could provide useful breakthroughs when the team needed him to. 40 Test wickets in 104 matches and 96 of the same in 146 ODI innings aren’t much, but considering the fact that a major fraction of his career overlapped with those of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, opportunities have been limited indeed.With him announcing his retirement from international cricket and the IPL on Monday, let us have a look at five instances when Sehwag the spinner thrilled Indians, creating magic with the ball.
#5 2/24 vs Australia
After the controversial Sydney Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2007-08, a rattled India took the field with only four specialist bowlers including a single frontline spinner at Perth in the 3rd match of the series. As a result, it was Virender Sehwag who had to shoulder the responsibility of the fifth bowler in the final innings of the match after RP Singh had done short work of the Australian batting line-up in their first innings.
Frustrated with Adam Gilchrist defending deliveries for almost an hour, Kumble decided to toss the ball to Sehwag for a change. In the third ball of the 61st over, the canny slow-bowler got the better of Gilchrist with an outstanding delivery. With the ball pitching outside leg stump, the southpaw was invited for a sweep, but he missed it entirely and the ball ended up knocking his leg stump instead.
But Sehwag wasn’t done yet. In his next over, he forced newcomer Brett Lee onto the front-foot and induced a thick inside edge off his willow. The ball flew towards silly point where VVS Laxman made no mistake at completing a low catch. Despite a fighting half-century from Mitchell Johnson later, India emerged victorious at the WACA for the first time ever.