Hero to zero: Viru takes it in his stride

And once out in the middle, he had to face a charged-up Shoaib Akhtar. As his wont, Sehwag went to play his natural game and lost control of the shot as the bat turned in his hand, the ball ballooning to to Yasir Hameed at gully, who took the catch at the third attempt.

It left the Indian dressing room in some tension — coach John Wright went walkabout in even more agitated manner — and Sehwag seething with anger. He stomped into the dressing room and stood next to wright and computer analyst S Ramakrishnan. He was waiting for a chance to see the television replays, but eventually ran out of patience. He then banged his fist on the glass door next to dressing room (perhaps unaware that quite a few have been fined for this in the past) before retreating to a corner of the dressing room. However, he, and the rest of the dressing room, recovered composure as Dravid and Parthiv steadied the ship. The banter and chatter returned and soon Sehwag was joining in.

At the end of the day’s play, Sehwag’s nemesis Shoaib also sat down with the Pakistani analyst to view his bowling. As the Pakistan team prepared to leave first, Sehwag looked on from the Indian balcony with a mischievous smile. He spotted Yasir Hameed and called him out first ‘‘Don Don, kya baat hai!”. To which a smiling Hameed replied, ‘‘Agli baar isse bhi difficult pakdoonga,’’ and both instantly broke into a laugh.

The last to walk out was Shoaib himself and Sehwag could not resist himself once again as he called out ‘‘Badiya bowling, yaar.’’ Shoaib though was still not satisfied and made it known why. ‘‘Shukra kar ek baar mein pakad liya,’’ he said, obviously reminding Sehwag of the numerous lives he was given by the Pakistani fielders in Multan during the knock of 309.Obviously, given the team position at the end of Tuesday, Sehwag too played down his first-ball dismissal. ‘‘Cricket hai, hota hai. One day you score 300 and the next a duck.’’