Sehwag's record-breaking 219

Quite naturally, the only memory that will remain of the India vs West Indies 4th ODI is that of Virender Sehwag smashing his way into the record books with 219 bludgeoned runs, but along the way Sehwag also crossed the significant landmark of 8000 ODI runs. Sehwag is on the cusp of 8000 Test runs too and it's a safe bet that he will end his career with 10,000 runs in both forms of the game. Another facet that completely escaped notice during Sehwag's innings was that in terms of balls faced, the 149 that he lasted today was the longest Sehwag has ever batted in ODIs. His previous best was during the opening match of the 2011 World Cup where he batted for 140 balls while bludgeoning 175 runs against Bangladesh. Given that Sehwag had stated before the World Cup that he would aim to stay for the full 50 overs at the crease - and given the devastating results when he does stay for long - this is a welcome sign for the Indian team. It also means that if Sehwag continues to have innings where he aims to last the full quota of overs, he could have another mammoth score soon to join in the list of best ever scores in ODI cricket.

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4:02 AM

Sehwag means business

The incomparable Virender Sehwag has shown once more that his batting talents are second to none. He has had a layoff from international cricket for reasons beyond his injury but his critics should know that he has lost none of his skills that make him the most feared batsman in the world. He has probably become wiser now as far as shot selection is concerned.

Sehwag was close to his best while playing for Delhi Daredevils against Wayamba at his home ground, Feroz Shah Kotla, in the Champions League Twenty20 Tournament 2009 on October 11.

Delhi desperately needed to overpower Wayamba in order to stay afloat in the competition after having lost their opening game to Victoria a couple of nights ago. The pitch wasn’t conducive to free flowing strokes yet Sehwag was the man they looked forward to in the crunch game.

Gautum Gambhir won the toss for the second game running and he had to make sure that the advantage was capitalized unlike the previous match when Delhi couldn’t even post one hundred while batting first.

The state of the pitch was very much in the minds of the batsmen and it was truly reflected when the flamboyant Sri Lankan opener, Tillakaratne Dilshan, played out the first over without troubling the scorers. It was a rare sight watching a maiden over being bowled and that too inside the powerplay session. Chanaka Welegedara deserved the credit for having kept Dilshan quiet.

Sehwag, who opened the innings with Dilshan, didn’t take long to open his shoulders and once he was underway the pitch looked full of runs rather incredibly. That’s the magic of Sehwag. He can remain untroubled on the most difficult of strips for two reasons. He has complete faith in his eyesight and secondly the bowlers also don’t have the heart to attack him with the same intensity and purpose as they do with other batsmen.

Dilshan kept struggling in his 16-ball 10 while Gambhir was also short of confidence on pitch whose bounce could not be trusted. But Sehwag kept hitting boundaries and the run-rate didn’t dip.

The enigmatic Dinesh Karthik did his job of feeding Sehwag with the strike and their partnership took the match away from Jehan Mubarak’s side. The ease with which Sehwag caressed the ball to the various corners of the ground was a treat to watch.

A century for Sehwag was there for the taking but as it has happened many times in the past the entertainment for the crowd was cut short against the run of play. Karthik pushed one towards the point region and took off for the quick single. Sehwag responded but he was beaten by the flat throw from Mahela Jayawardene.

Sehwag was run out after scoring 62 off 42 balls with the help of a six and 10 fours. The score was already 112 when he departed in the 15th over. Karthik made up with three consecutive sixes off Ajantha Mendis and the Delhi total reached 170 in the allotted 20 overs.

Glenn McGrath, the Australian fast bowling great, appeared to have derived the inspiration from his teammate Sehwag as was right on the money while returning to the bowling crease after 18 months. Delhi were never in danger of losing the game after the blitz from Sehwag and they lived upto the billing by winning it by 50 runs.

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4:30 AM

Sehwag will miss team India due to injury

Chennai: Cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Friday said that swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag, who is sidelined due to injury, will be desperately missed by the team during the tour of Sri Lanka as well as the Champions Trophy.

"Any team will miss Sehwag (Virender Sehwag) because he was in such a form, that would have been a great advantage for any team," Gambhir said.

Gambhir said this on the sidelines of ceremony held in Chennai, where he was appointed the brand ambassador of MRF.


India has announced the squad for the Sri Lanka tri-series followed by the Champions Trophy, in which they have recalled Rahul Dravid and left out Sehwag due to his shoulder surgery.

Gambhir further sad that international cricket was all about handling pressure, and you have to continuously deliver for the team.

"When you are playing international cricket it`s all about the pressure. You should know how to handle it and you should be able take that responsibility, which is very important and the responsibility only comes when the team starts expecting that you can deliver," he said.

The series in Sri Lanka, which also involves New Zealand, will be held from September 8 to 14.

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5:59 AM

Virender Sehwag prefers to play Tests to Twenty20s

Mumbai: The public might be enchanted with the Twenty20 format but swashbuckling Indian opener Virender Sehwag prefers to play Tests and ODIs more than the shortest form of the game that has taken the cricket world by storm.

"Personally I would like to play more Tests and ODIs than T20 games which I know have become extremely popular.”

I would like to play at least eight to 10 Tests in a year," Sehwag said at the media conference here to announce the list of nominees for this year``s LG-ICC annual awards. Sehwag batted for all three formats even as some past cricketers, including spin legend Shane Warne, have written the epitaph of the 50-over game.


The England and Wales Cricket Board already scrapped the one-dayers from its domestic schedule. "The 20-20 game is big and in future may be everything but I would like to play more Tests and ODIs.”

The message I would like to give to the ICC is to introduce a World Championship of Tests. "Every cricketer would like to play Tests against every other country and perform well.”

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4:07 AM

Social community sites hits India’s top cricketers

They may have trained hard to counter the short-pitched deliveries in their preparatory camp but it’s a cyber bouncer that has left India’s top cricketers a worried lot.

As the star players gear up for a gruelling season ahead, they are faced with a bizarre problem -- cyber impersonation on micro-blogging site ‘Twitter’.

The increasing popularity of the site in India has brought with it a problem which has the potential to create confusion and mislead unsuspecting cricket buffs.

What is worse, the players, who have millions of fans in a cricket-crazy nation, can do little about it.


Most of the celebrated Indian players have accounts on ‘Twitter’ but almost all of them are fake. They have already drawn a huge list of dedicated followers and it keeps growing every passing day.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has four ‘accounts’ on the networking site with one of them having attracted 2291 followers till Sunday.

In the profile page, it shows Dhoni with the Indian cap and the bio says “I am the captain of the national cricket team”.

Dhoni’s agents and family members have made it clear that the Indian captain does not have an account on Twitter, seeking to dissociate themselves from the handiwork of a prankster who operates the page.

“Dhoni does not have an account on Twitter. Many people have called us and we want to clarify this point” his elder brother Narendra Singh Dhoni told reporters.

Some of the tweets from the impersonated Dhoni account, which ranges from the problems in DDCA to Vinod Kambli’s reality show, have already created some controversy.

For example, a tweet on August 26 said “I wanted to give my regards to Vinod Kambli. Had he played to his potential, he had the chance to be as great as Sachin and Lara”.

But apparently, it led to some misunderstanding among his followers. Hence another tweet within hours on the same day said “Please don’t misunderstand comments about Sachin and Kambli. Sachin is the greatest batsman to ever play the game of cricket!!”

The cyber impersonation on Twitter is not restricted to Dhoni. Champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar has as many as seven accounts with one of them, which has his photo, having over 4594 followers.

Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh and Gautam Gambhir are among the top cricketers who have to deal with this Twitter menace.

With many celebrities worldwide joining the Twitter bandwagon, the social networking site is aware of such problems and has introduced a ‘verified account’ badge to lend genuineness to the account and prevent identity confusion.

“To prevent identity confusion, Twitter is experimenting (beta testing) with a ‘Verified Account’ feature. We’re working to establish authenticity with people who deal with impersonation or identity confusion on a regular basis,” a Twitter communication said.

“With this feature, you can easily see which accounts we know are ‘real’ and authentic. That means we’ve been in contact with the person or entity the account is representing and verified that it is approved (This does not mean we have verified who, exactly, is writing the tweets).”

“This also does not mean that accounts without the ‘Verified Account’ badge are fake. The vast majority of accounts on the system are not impersonators, and we don’t have the ability to check 100 per cent of them. For now, we’ve only verified a handful of accounts to help with cases of mistaken identity or impersonation” it said.

Twitter has strict guidelines to prevent impersonation but it will find it difficult to keep track of such practices unless specific complaints are made.

The site’s Impersonation Policy says: “Pretending to be another person or business as entertainment or in order to deceive is impersonation.”

“Non-parody impersonation is a violation of the Terms of Service, specifically article 4 which states: You must not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other Twitter users.”

The standard for defining parody is, “would a reasonable person be aware that it’s a joke.” An account may be guilty of impersonation if it confuses or misleads others – accounts with the clear intent to confuse or mislead will be permanently suspended.

Parody impersonation accounts are allowed to exist. The profile information on a parody account must make it obvious that the profile is fake, or it is subject to removal from Twitter.

Fortunately, it is still early days for web impersonation in India and therefore the damage has been limited among ‘tweeple’, a term said to have been coined by Bollywood director Karan Johar to describe people on Twitter.

But many avid Dhoni fans are gradually realising that they have been fooled by a prankster. “All these days I was thinking I was following my hero Dhoni. But now I know its not him. I am disappointed,” said Chetna Rai, a Dhoni fan in Ghaziabad.

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5:59 AM

Virender Shewag

Virender Sehwag Statistics
Born: 20 October 1978, Delhi
Major Teams: Delhi, India.
Known As: Virender Shewag
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Right Arm Off Break

Profile:
A hard hitting batsman and a more than useful off spinner, Virender Shewag made a disastrous debut against Pakistan at Mohali in the Pepsi Cup. After having got out for a single he was hammered for 35 runs in the three overs that he bowled. He was then short listed among the 19 probables for the 1999 World Cup in England but did not make the final squad. Shewag has been a mainstay in the Delhi Ranji Trophy team since the 1998-99 season. A powerful hitter of the ball, he aggregated 745 runs during the 1998-99 Ranji Trophy season with three centuries and followed it up with 674 runs in the 1999-2000 edition of the competition.

Shewag made a strong comeback to the Indian team during the Australia tour of India in 2000-01. In the first one-dayer at Bangalore, Shewag helped himself to a quick half century before scalping three crucial wickets to play a leading role in India's victory. Man of the match in the first one-dayer, Shewag was forced to miss the rest of the series with a fractured finger. But the last has not been heard of this stout hearted Delhi all rounder.

ODI Debut: India v Pakistan at Mohali, Pepsi Cup, 1998/99
Live India V Pakistan 2004 tour


NEW DELHI: The starry-minded not to mention starry eyed
would say swashbuckler Sehwag once again displayed a perfect
sense of timing. Thursday was akha teej , the day you can do
anything without consulting astrologers. Not just any akha teej ,
but apparently the most auspicious one in 70 years. And so,
shaadi manaane ko Sehwag chala . But everything associated
with Sehwag just has to be tempestous. And so, a downpour
duly engulfed Delhi, raising fears that the season's most awaited
match-up might be a washout. This day, though, there was going
to be no raining on the Nawab of Najafgarh's parade.
Staff at 9 Ashoka Road Arun Jaitley's residence and the wedding's
venue scurried around frantically. Fans of the pedestal kind
were pressed into service; the maroon satin and golden tissue
curtains dried and hung up again. Picture-perfection was restored,
the stage set for Jea Band from Red Fort to make a grand entry at
about 9 p m, huffing and puffing away to the sonorous strains of Bolo
Tara Ra Ra .The pandal at 9, Ashoka Road, Arun Jaitley’s residence
and the venue of Sehwag’s wedding. More photos But wait a minute,
where was the munda himself? Logon dhoondo dhoondo might
well have been played at this juncture, except that the band had
fallen silent. No, Sehwag hadn't been run out, just left behind
somewhere in the course of switching over from the mandatory
mare to a car. The waiting began. In between, BCCI chief Jagmohan
Dalmiya walked in and wished the couple an unbeaten century partnership.
Taaliyan, taaliyan . But still no sign of the groom. The band held its peace,
only bursting into Aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai when local BJP leader
Vijay Goel marched in. Meanwhile, the guests gave the decor a dekko .
Nothing too fancy: lights on trees, a tastefully decorated stage
with golden drapes behind the thrones. The chairs were golden too,
with maroon cushions, flanked by two dull gold pillars bedecked with flowers,
prominently orchids, carnations, roses and birds of paradise,
reportedly brought in from Thailand
Contrary to reports of five-star spreads, the food was mostly
shuddh shakahari bharatiya bhojan with nary a foie gras or
caviar on bline in sight, provided by Dass Caterers of
R K Puram, who'd also catered the wedding of the bride's elder sister.
The look-around was interrupted by a blast of music.
Pretty Woman the Main Hoon Na version blared from the dance
floor set up in the lawn. Shortly thereafter, at around 10 pm,
Viru entered in a white Merc, wearing a colour-coordinated cream
churidar kurta . He charged straight for the dressing-room.
A quick changeover into a brown sherwani later, he was out
on the ground, ready to begin his new innings. Guests with a
sense of humour remarked upon the absence of a helmet.
And the ceremonies commenced.
All the hustle and bustle at night was a far cry from the
subdued atmosphere at Sehwag's house in Najafgarh earlier in the day.
Curtains were tightly drawn, doors and windows bolted,
and umpteen policemen patrolled the house on all sides.
There was a brief dance routine by cousins and friends.
The moment the music started, curious neighbours thronged
the entrance and climbed onto the rooftops for a glimpse.
A family visit to the local temple evoked a similiar response,
with enthusiastic onlookers scaling the walls and cheering and clapping wildly.
Viru didn't have a bat to raise in acknowledgment,
but he did smile and wave, all the while cutting a dashing
figure in grey sherwani and red bandhni turban.

Sehwag powers India to series win
New Zealand v India, 4th ODI, Hamilton
March 11, 2009

as the visitors swept to a comprehensive win that secured their maiden one-day series triumph in New Zealand. Sehwag reached three-figures off 60 balls with a signature six and his awe-inspiring hitting overshadowed Gautam Gambhir's near run-a-ball half-century. Daniel Vettori and the rest of the New Zealand bowlers were powerless in the face of the onslaught and what had seemed a challenging target was chased down with ridiculous ease. Even the two stoppages due to rain couldn't stem the run-deluge with Sehwag completing his century as early as the 18th over.

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7:19 AM