Sehwag double ton?

Just 18 more runs to go.

An absolute joke of a pitch, nothing in it for the bowler, not what cricket needs.

'Tis a joke. Poor bowlers getting tonked. I hope he gets real some chin music in Oz!

Looks like he will beat Tendulkas record.

Yeah Skye... and the 438 could be in doubt?

To be fair, I don't mind a road every once in a while on an ODI. As long as it isn't every game. Even 1 every series is too much, but occasionally seeing a side rack up 350 plus is quite enjoyable to watch. The trouble is it happens far too often and there isn't enough consistent competition between bat and ball with Indian mpitches being the worst culprits.

I am a little disappointed it is Sehwag to cash in though. A great player on this sort of wicket, but he isn't enhancing his reputation any more with this innings. It is just what we expect from him. Gets runs on flat decks.

nah don't think they'll get past the 438. Sehwag should have gone on about 170 or so but Sammy dropped an absolute sitter. Worth mentioning that Sehwag ha faced the majority of the strike too. As a rule I don't mind flat tracks so much in ODIs, but this one's going a bit too far. Probably India trying to knock Sehwag into form before Aus...

I think 443 is the yardstick, not 438. Sri Lanka v Netherlands.

Sehwag 201no

and there it is. You have to give Sehwag credit for this, it's been a superb knock

202

400 is def on though.

Hope his shoulder holds up... there's the 201*

Forgot about that titanic score against the Netherlands... they'll get over 400 for sure I'd say now.

Unless we get a Ross Taylor for the last 5.

He holes out for 219...

you do wonder what Sammy's doing in the side though right now. He's bowled three overs today and the other day bowled just two I think. Seems to me he hid from Sehwag today, not what you want from your captain...

Flat track bully

A few churlish comments on here I think: no matter how flat the wicket and how bad the bowling (it's been ok actually) to get 219 in 150 balls is a monumental effort.

Fantastic knock!

Shame Chris Gayle isn't playing, could have tried something similar!

Yep, disgraceful pitch (which they should be fined for, watching that is worse than watching a match on a terrible pitch which is great fun), but what an innings, hats off.

Is Gayle still on a self imposed hiatus?

I think he's arriving here in the next few days... if not already here for the BBL.

So 418/5... highest total for India by 4 runs.

Its ironic how a feat or record by indian player is always gets under values and u see churlish comments like flat pitch , disgraceful bowling atatck , bowlers were roach,rampaul,russelsunil narine ,sammy and samuels, which is a very good bowling attack , i dare any other player to do the same to this attack on this pitch????

try to respect good innings and give the value it deserves , try and learn some humility!

He's getting plenty of respect, it was a magnificent innings, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that cricket is better off without pitches like that.

A bowling attack of Marshall, Holding, Garner et al would have struggled there!

Well, it was a flat pitch and it isn't a very good bowling attack. And not many other players would have been able to do the same on that pitch but it doesn't change the fact that this is Sehwag's MO. He gets runs on flat tracks, but struggles against the moving ball. Yes, it was a good knock but it doesn't increase my overall respect for him as a player.

@JDizzle
typicalla roogant english nature? eh
doesnt matter what u think and i dont give a jot, statistically he is india's biggest matchinning batter in Tests , averages 60 in australia yes he fails in england but most english players fail in india where they didnot won since i was born

@fistsoffury

sehwag can only play on pitch he was given and can only face the bowlers the opposition has got , not his problem

Quite, hes clealry batted well and acheived something not many players could do in any conditions against any attack but its not good for any form of cricket to have a pitch that easy. But certain players are better at taking advantage than others, flat track bully he may be but hes won the game for India with that.

I dont think the Windies attack is much cop.

cricketfan wrote:@JDizzle
typicalla roogant english nature? eh
doesnt matter what u think and i dont give a jot, statistically he is india's biggest matchinning batter in Tests , averages 60 in australia yes he fails in england but most english players fail in india where they didnot won since i was born

Typical English??

A player like Sehwag will always divide opinion. Don't take it to heart.

cricketfan wrote:@JDizzle
typicalla roogant english nature? eh
doesnt matter what u think and i dont give a jot, statistically he is india's biggest matchinning batter in Tests , averages 60 in australia yes he fails in england but most english players fail in india where they didnot won since i was born

He also struggles in South Africa and New Zealand where the ball swings aswell. So yes, he has a weakness against the swinging ball. And because of that he will never manage to be a great on the same level as even Dravid and Tendulkar and my eyes. He is special in his own way, but I respect Dravid and Tendulkar more as they have done it in all conditions.

Arrogant? I don't see how many previous statement makes me arrogant. I stated that I didn't think many other players in world cricket could have played that knock and I respect it, but it doesn't change my opinion of him. And yes, not many English players do do well in India, but I don't see how that is relevent to the debate?

And I'm Welsh.

it's not only England he fails in though. He averages below 30 in England, SA and NZ. That's why he divides opinion.

@madfor chelsea

he has done evry well in newzeland odi's
and only played 4 tests there i guess and score hundreds in south africa, show me how many openers have done well south africa recently , im tlkaing about visiting team's openers
i agree that he cant play good short pitch bowling and good swing bowling but every batter has gpt weakness , its the ones who mages find a way around and win the matches gfor their country are true greats and sehwag is one

Sehwag is an excellent player but some way short of being a great - because he shows no interest in adapting to conditions. So far in this series he has swung the bat and been out early, today it came of for him - but 1 score in 4 is not a brilliant return. Without Kohli and Rohit Sharma India could have been in real danger of losing this series.

While the highest score in ODI cricket - I very much doubt this was Sehwags best innings.

Strauss averages 50 in SA, Cook 45, Trescothick 52. That's England's three opening batsmen to have played there in the last ten years. Katich averages 43. Graeme Smith averages 45. That's just looking at the openers of three countries.

I'm not disputing the fact that Sehwag is a mighty fine player, but such struggles in three countries will always raise a question mark over whether he belongs in the all-time great list.

@MAD FOR CHELSEA
im not saying that he is an all time great iam saying that he is the second greatest opener india has ever produced , and regaridng my comment about opners , strauss and cook as good as they are are accumulators so cant compare sehwag and them

Accumulators?

Please explain?

it was in response to the "show me how many openers have done well in SA recently". I showed you five. I wouldn't disagree about Sehwag being India's second best-ever opener (behind Gavaskar obviously). For me he probably ranks about 15-20 in openers since the war, and somewhere around the 25 mark (probably) in all time terms.

Coming over from the controversial thread.. I think hes better than Gayle.

Yes he has a limited game, but he is the greatest at that game there is. The anti Boycottt?

on a slightly different issue, I strongly dislike the fact that Sehwag hasn't even come out to field in the WI innings. He's meant to be captain and thus leading the side, and sure he played a draining knock, but ultimately he only batted for 45 overs or so, which isn't all that long. It shows to me that Indians still regard the fielding aspect as something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

@mad for chelsea
i agree with you on that aspect and its not on ,
this is where dhoni is different he does everything for the team , i agree that sehwag should have been out their fielding .
but that fitness levels of most indian players are inferior to western players apart from dhoni,jadeja or raina or kohli i guess

I'm not sure it's fitness levels cricketfan, though that may be a part of it. More that there's never been that great an importance attached to fielding in the subcontinent in general, it's sort of a cultural thing. India have improved in that area recently, with the likes of Raina and Kohli especially, but they still have a way to go before they reach the standards of England, Australia or SA.

When you're captaining the side, you should be out there in the field, even if you've batted a bit before.

Curses. Missed it all. Has anyone ever scored such BIG SCORES at such a pace ? OK, there are times when he fails against the moving ball. But this guy is the business.

Once his eye is in and the ball/pitch are doing nothing, he is about as dangerous as they come.

Fists of Fury wrote:Once his eye is in and the ball/pitch are doing nothing, he is about as dangerous as they come.

Providing the pitch is flat, offers nothing to the bowler and is basically like a road of course!

Oh come on, you all exaggerate! Yes Shewag struggles when the ball moves, but flat doesn't mean only lack of spin. Shewag has made runs in India and Australia. His 195 at the MCG in '03 (I think?) was a fantastic knock on a wicket where no one else in the first innings passed 50 (I think - certainly no one made 80+).

I think there is still some snobbery from the fact that he doesn't play like the MCC coaching manual (KP gets similar stick but from different audiences it would seem). But you know, he averages 50+ in test cricket, has scored triple centuries and even played a match-saving innings against Murali in Sri Lanka once. He's not just a one-trick pony.

Today was a great innings. I'm disappointed so many people seem to want to put a dampener on it.

I wouldn't call it snobbery, but the fact remains that Sehwag struggles when the ball's nipping around a bit, and he's never really tried to work on that. It has nothing to do with today's innings, but it explains why some of us don't hold Sehwag as one of the all-time greats.

So Shewag once again destroys a bowling attack and it's due the nature of the pitch. I'm getting slightly confused here, if the pitches Shewag bats on are soo flat, why do none of the other players get the monster scores? Or in other terms, why do the supposed more talented batsmen(Tendulkar,Dravid Gambhir etc) don't cash in?

Simply put, this notion of Shewag being a bully on flat pitches, is a way to disregard some of the games finest achievements.

Shewag has pummeled Sri Lanka and Pakistan into the ground many times, this includes destroying Murali and Mendis in 2008(when India's star middle order was exposed as rabbits in the headlights) and Multan 2004(a attack featuring Shoaib and Saqlain - hardly dud bowlers).

Yes he struggles in swings conditions, so what? Many layers have weaknesses. England's current golden boy Cook was found wanting by Pakistan in 2010.

Shewag has done well in Australia, but does that not count? He has also scored ODI hundreds in New Zealand. So he has the capacity to score runs all over the world.

Essentially Shewag is loathed by most on here, as he 's not following the batting handbook. Its also held against him that he's fantastic player of spin, but that means he's a flat track bully? He's dismantled Warne, MacGill, Mendis, Saqlain and Murali.

In relation to another thread on here, a certain K Pietersen called Shewag a 'Genius. Does that mean Pietersen is talking trash?

Seems as though most of the world loves Shewag's gameplay, yet the professionals on 606v2 must know better. Go figure.

Might I also add, that it isn't conceivable that Shewag makes bowlers bowl badly? The pressure he applies causes bowlers to lose their senses. It's not like he batters the crap sides like Bangladesh is it?

Massive congrats to Sehwag

Great great player, deserves all the plaudits

The three countries where the ball nips around the most are the three countries where Sehwag averages under 30. Australia doesn't actually swing much (certainly not for long). Myself, I'm going to nick an expression guildford used to describe Jack Russell and call Sehwag a "flawed genius."

Mad for Chelsea wrote:The three countries where the ball nips around the most are the three countries where Sehwag averages under 30. Australia doesn't actually swing much (certainly not for long). Myself, I'm going to nick an expression guildford used to describe Jack Russell and call Sehwag a "flawed genius."

So Shewag is weak against the moving ball, I get that.

On the other hand, he's a destroy of spinners(great spinners) so why does he not get recognition for that? When he destroyed Murali & Mendis at Galle and Mumbai, many claimed these where roads, yet these where crumbling pitches. He single handled humiliated the greatest wicket taker of all time. Not many can say that.