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Journalism of Courage
The Holkar Cricket Stadium was unusually full,for a Challenger series game at least,on Thursday. It could be put down to the public getting chance to see several players who have played for the national side in the recent past,in action. Some of it could also be because,for the first time in four months,Virender Sehwag would be playing a competitive fixture. Sehwag,of course,also shares a special relationship with the place,the venue where he belted that 219 against the West Indies in 2011.
There may have been a lot of expectations from the crowd,but it was not Sehwag who walked out when Delhi began their chase of India Blues8217; 270. Instead,he was penciled in to come at No. 4,behind skipper Virat Kohli. The experiment to play Sehwag in the middle order has generated a lot of debate,and it was certainly not going to be settled on Thursday,thanks to Delhi8217;s poor start in the chase.
It may have been the fact that the total Delhi was chasing was on the bigger side or that he felt the best way to get back into the groove was to play in his usual aggressive manner,but Sehwag gave the crowd several more opportunities to roar,in the 10 or so overs that he spent in the middle.
Sehwag smashed nine fours and a six in his 38-ball 59,with Blues skipper Vinay Kumar alone conceding four of the batsman8217;s 10 boundaries. Vinay Kumar was forced to juggle,with four different bowlers in use within the window of Sehwag8217;s brief knock.
By the time he fell in the 13th over to the left arm spin of Iresh Saxena 8212; he smashed one straight back to the bowler right after hitting him for a boundary 8212; he may not have done enough to take Delhi to the win,but he had certainly set up the chase. When he had walked in Delhi had scored at less than three runs an over and had lost two wickets. When he left,Delhi were scoring close to 6.5 runs an over,almost a run and a half more than was necessary at that stage.
The competition for middle order slots in the Indian team is intense and there aren8217;t too many boundary opportunities in the middle order. But then,the ball is also not moving around too much in the middle overs,something that would give Sehwag comfort. Thursday8217;s knock was too brief to give the viewer any idea of how and whether Sehwag can find the balance,but it was a step in the right direction nevertheless.
