Sehwag
rescues India with superb century
ADELAIDE,
Jan 28:
Sidelined from Test cricket for a year,
opener Virender Sehwag today rescued India with a
brilliant 151 to force a draw in the fourth and
final cricket Test against Australia which still
won the hard-fought series 2-1.
The 29-year-old
Sehwag notched up his 13th Test century to steer
India to safety on a last day Adelaide Oval track
as the visitors reached 269 for seven before both
teams decided to call off play.
The drawn result
meant that Australia retained the Border-Gavaskar
trophy but the Indians proved worthy challengers
to the world champion team in a pulsating series
which provided much drama both on and off the
field.
The swashbuckling
Delhi batsman had been dropped from the Test side
in January last year after a poor run but was
included in the team in the previous Test at
Perth on the insistence of skipper Anil Kumble.
He has had scores of 29, 43 63 and 151 in Perth
and here and will be a part of the Indian team
for the next month’s tri-series.
Resuming their
second innings at 45 for one, Sehwag scored his
first century in 18 months and held the Indian
innings together as wickets kept tumbling at the
other end at periodic intervals.
Barring Sehwag,
who struck 11 fours and two sixes during his
236-ball knock, none of the other Indian batsmen
could hang around for long against the the
disciplined Australian bowlers who tried their
best to force a result.
The high-scoring
match will be remembered as Adam Gilchrist’s
last Test appearance and the great wicket-keeper
batsman was lustily cheered as he walked out of
the field for the last time. In a touching
gesture, all the Indian players shook hands with
him after the game it was probably the last Test
appearance on Australian soil for some of the
senior Indian players like Sachin Tendulkar,
captain Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly
and VVS Laxman.
India began the
day on 45 for 1, which soon worsened once Rahul
Dravid had to leave the field on 57 after his
right middle finger was rattled by a Brett Lee
express delivery with the right-hander yet to add
a run to his overnight score of 11 runs.
Dravid was later
diagnosed with a hairline fracture on the finger
and will be out of action for two to three weeks.
Sehwag then took
control and scored the first 42 runs of his
association with Sachin Tendulkar before the
little master could open his account.
The stand produced
72 runs in a mere 69 minutes and 84 balls before
Tendulkar (13) run-out, going for a non-existent
run on the onside where Mitchell Johnson picked
and threw down the strikers’ stumps in one
motion.
Tendulkar had
earlier survived a close call off the first ball
he had faced that had ricocheted to the covers
off silly point Phil Jacques.
The umpires had
then asked for third umpire’s intervention
who ruled in batsman’s favour.
Sehwag batted with
his wonted freedom and completed his century with
a push on the onside off Mitchell Joh-nsonscoring
100 of the 128 runs Indians had on the board.
Sehwag, let off by
Michael Clarke yesterday, began in a positive
manner, clipping Clark behind point for four and
then slashed Lee hard past slips for a similar
result.
He then cover
drove and cut Lee for fours to reach his half
century from 78 balls.
Sehwag took on
left-arm spinner Brad Hogg, slamming him over
midwicket for a six and then smashing him to the
cover fence.
When he reached
his century, Sehwag had faced only 123 balls.
The afternoon
session saw India lose two more wickets but
Sehwag was still around, showing a new facet of
his batting by adding only 29 runs in the
session.
Sourav Ganguly had
moved to 18 without too much concern before he
drove one to covers which again raised the doubts
of a bump catch.
The television
replay ruled against the batsmen though making it
fourth successive failure for the Bengal batsman.
VVS Laxman was the
next one to go, guiding Brett Lee down the
leg-side to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and there
was again a sneaking suspicion if India had again
put themselves into some sort of trouble.
Sehwag finally was
dismissed in the final session, edging a catch
behind the stumps off Andrew Symonds, having
batted for 354 minutes and hit 13 fours and two
sixes from 236 balls.
The match was
finally called off two overs before the final 15
mandatory overs began.
India Ist innings:
526
Australia Ist
innings: 563
India 2nd innings:
Sehwag c Gilchrist
b Symonds 151
Pathan lbw b
Johnson 0
Dravid retd hurt
11
Tendulkar run out
13
Ganguly c Hussey b
Johnson 18
Laxman c Gilchrist
b Lee 12
Dhoni c Hayden b
Lee 20
Kumble not out 9
Harbhajan c
Ponting b Hogg 7
Ishant not out 4
Extras (b7, lb9,
w3, nb5) 24
Total (for 7 wkts
decl, 90 overs) 269
Fall of Wickets :
1-2, 2-128, 3-162, 4-186, 5-237, 6-253, 7-264
Bowling: Brett Lee
27-3-74-2, Mitchell Johnson 16-1-33-2, Andrew
Symonds 22-4-54-1, Stuart Clark 12-3-37-0, Brad
Hogg 12-3-53-1, Michael Clarke 1-0-2-0. (PTI)
Anand
finishes joint third, Negi joint second
WIJK
AAN ZEE (The Netherlands), Jan 28: World champion
Visw-anathan Anand split points with Russian
Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to
share the third spot in group A at the end of the
Corus International Chess tournament today.
GrandMaster Levoin
Aronian of Armenia and Magnus Carlsen of Norway
shared top honours in the category-20 event after
drawing their games against Judit Polgar of
Hungary and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan
respectively.
Both Carlsen and
Aronian ended with 8 points out of a possible 13
and Anand finished a half point behind on 7.5
along with Radjabov. Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine
and Peter Leko of Hungary finished tied fifth on
seven points apiece.
GrandMaster
Parimarjan Negi spurned down his drawing
alternatives and went down to 15-year-old Fabiano
Crauana of Italy in the final round of group C.
While Caruana won
the 13-round event with a massive 10 points, Negi
ended joint second along with Dimitry Reinderman
of Holland on 8 points.
Sergei Movsesian
of Slovakia expectedly emerged champion in group
B after taking an easy draw as white against
Koneru Humpy.
It was a
stupendous effort from Movsesian who ended on 9.5
points in all, a full point clear of nearest
rivals Nigel Short of England and Etienne Bacrot
of France.
GrandMaster P
Harikrishna played out a safe draw with Bacrot in
the final round to finish clear fourth on 7.5
points. Harikrishna will get a marginal increase
in his rating but Humpy with her below 50 per
cent score is going to lose few points.
Anand had Kramnik
on the ropes and at some point it appeared that
the Indian ace will pull out the important
victory over Kramnik. It was a petroff defense by
the Russian who played black and Anand was on top
following an interesting idea that involved a
pawn sacrifice.
Kramnik’s
queen was driving to the edge of the board as
Anand increased the pressure in the middle game
but the Russian was back in the game after an
inaccuracy by the Indian on the 51st move.
Parimarjan
employed the marshall which did not turn out to
be a good choice against Caruana who needed just
a draw for clear first place. (PTI)
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