Sehwag's Ton Props Up India

Virender Sehwag hit a scintillating century as the Indian batsmen showed a lotbetter application than they did in the first Test and finished a truncated opening day of the second cricket Testagainst England at Trent Bridge today at a comfortable 210 for four.

Coming as an opener, Sehwag batted for nearly four and half hours to carve out his second Test century, a 183-ball106 that held the Indian innings together in the first two sessions of play.

Sehwag was associated in two good partnerships with Sachin Tendulkar and skipperSaurav Ganguly before being clean bowled by Craig White soon after overtaking his previoushighest Test score of 105, scored against South Africa in his debut match last year.

India took a brave decision of electing to bat first on a pitch that had a lot of sideways movement, ignoring the factthat England had packed as many as five fast bowlers in their side.

However, they did not have the greatest of starts with opener Wasim Jaffer (0) and Rahul Dravid (13) being sent backby Matthew Hoggard with just 34 runs on the board.

Sehwag put on 74 runs with Tendulkar for the third wicket and 71 with Ganguly for the fourth to rebuild the Indianinnings. Tendulkar was out for 34 while attempting an indiscreet shot but Ganguly was still there on 29 when badlight forced the end of day's play with 24 overs still remaining to be bowled.

V.V.S. Laxman was the other not out batsman, having made 22.

On a typical day of Test cricket, the Indian batsmen weremade to work hard for their runs as the ball moved both waysat great angles. Proper shot selection was vital and this iswhere both Jaffer and Dravid made the mistake.

Jaffer played away from his body and was bowled off aninside edge in just the third over of the innings while Dravid, usually ideally suited for such conditions, misjudgedthe length of the ball and gave a simple catch to debutantRobert Key in the slips.

Tendulkar was also slightly circumspect initially but bythe time India took lunch at 61 for two, he seemed more incontrol.

Sehwag, on the other hand, was hardly unfazed by themoving ball and played in the way he does best - by attacking.There were instances when he was beaten outside the off-stumpor when he attempted injudicious shots but he left them behindwith a gentle shrug of his head and was ready for the nextball.

Some of the strokes he played through the off-side werevisual delights. Copy-book drives through covers and pointmade the English fielders look like applauding spectators.

He reached his half-century with his ninth boundary, abeautiful cover-drive against Hoggard, who was clearly thepick of the English bowlers today.

The scoring picked up in the post-lunch session with Tendulkar, who failed in both the innings of the first Test atLord's, slowly getting into a nice rhythm.

Tendulkar, whose first run took him past Sir GarfieldSober's tally of 8032 Test runs, hit a couple of boundaries toquickly move into his thirties but then attempted a rashstroke that halted his nascent innings.

With only one fielder placed on the on-side, Tendulkartried to pull a Dominic Cork delivery from wide outside theoff-stump to the midwicket boundary but only managed an insideedge that crashed into his stumps. Tendulkar's 68 ball knockcontained six hits to the fence.

Keen to get back to form, Ganguly was satisfied to grafthis innings and played cautiously but the English bowlers hadno respite from Sehwag. The two Indian batsmen took the scoreto 141 for three when bad light forced tea break to be taken15 minutes before schedule.

When play resumed, Sehwag struck a string of fiveboundaries in three overs in the run-up to his century. Thefifth was an uppish drive over point region and just escapedthe hands of a diving Michael Vaughan but fetched him hissecond Test century nevertheless.

Sehwag seemed to have relaxed a bit after reaching hiscentury and that brought his downfall soon after. He lazilyleaned into a fuller delivery from Craig White and missed theline completely to see his middle stumps uprooted.

Sehwag's wicket fell at 179 and Ganguly was joined byLaxman who once again looked in prime touch. Having spent agood amount of time at the crease, Ganguly also battedconfidently but it was Laxman who stole the show in the overspreceding the abrupt end to the day's play.

Laxman, who had scores of 43 not out and 74 in the Lord'sTest, batted elegantly and struck four sweetly timedboundaries in his 27-ball 22.

PTI