Sehwag sizzles on wet day

What the haitch, they asked him while applying emergency first aid, you are supposed to have one of the blackest belts there is, so how come you got beaten up so bad?

Well see, the expert went, through bloodied lips, the thing is, they hit me before I had a chance to really get into my martial arts stance; I just didn't have a chance.

Pakistan today knows how that martial arts expert must have felt - coming out to defend what looked like a sizeable score of 312, the team would have taken heart from the rain, that permitted play to begin only 50 minutes before the scheduled tea break.

That rain, wisdom meant, made the score of 312 assume proportions bigger than its numerical value; it opened up a juiced pitch for exploitation by the Mohammad Sami-led attack; it put a few doubts in the minds of Indian batsmen.

It did all of that - until the umpires finally called play and Sami ran in for the first over. A four by Gautam Gambhir, another by Virender Sehwag, and suddenly, two strokeplayers were ganging up and beating up on the Pak bowlers before they, and their skipper, had a chance to get set and get into the game.

Pakistan had chances - two of them. In the fifth over of the innings, Sami produced a delivery that was quick, outside off, with the barest of away movement; Sehwag had a swish, got the thick edge and Taufeeq Umar, at second slip, grassed a regulation head high catch after getting the ball in the head high reverse clip. India's score then was 22, Sehwag on 16.

Later - very much later - Kaneria in the 30th over tossed one up outside the off stump, inviting the lavish drive. Sehwag obliged, opening his shoulders and letting fly. The ball, which generated bite off the deck thanks to good loop and flight, turned, took the edge, and flew to slip - where Younis Khan snatched at the ball rather than wait for it, got it on the heel of his hand, and watched it pop out again, with Sehwag then on 82, and India on 157/1.

One life for a batsman as destructive as Sehwag can be, is luxury - let him off twice, and you get to thinking, if the fielding side wants to see Sehwag bat so much they won't get him out, then heck, they deserve all they get.

Gambhir and Sehwag started positive, and stayed that way, in their own contrasting styles.

Sehwag was all power and aggression, waiting on his hind legs and using that high back lift, and tremendous bat speed, to club the ball through the off cordon, behind point, through the slip-gully cordon and once, in the 8th over, off Naved ul Hassan, up and over the third man boundary.

Gambhir, at the other end, was all lanquid grace. Tight in defense, he time and again glided onto the front foot when the bowlers pitched up, and played a succession of classy drives in the arc between cover point and mid off, that left the field standing and even his partner applauding in appreciation.

What was most remarkable about the association, though, was their understanding. Time and again, one or the other would play the ball down with soft hands - a look at the partner, a nod, and they would hare across for the quick, well judged single that rotated strike between the left and right hander, kept the bowlers from settling down, and kept the pressure right on the fielding side.

Gambhir, thus, had 9 singles in his innings of 41; Sehwag has 27, no less, in his innings of 95 off 121 deliveries.

Again, look at Gambhir's stats - 41 off 46 meant that though he was no Sehwag, he was scoring at an Australian clip, from the opener's position, and ensuring that the pressure Sehwag brought to bear at one end was not dissipated at the other.

His wagon wheel is indicative of how Gambhir bats - like most classical openers, he gets the bulk of his runs through the off cordon - 9 in the arc from third man to point, and 17 in the coverpoint-extra cover arc.

Sehwag - 4 twos, 2 threes, 12 fours and one six in his 121 ball effort - was eclectic in where he hit the ball. 23 of his runs, including the six, came behind the wicket on the off side; 34 were through the arc between point and cover, including six clubbed drives to the boundary; four runs came through the mid off region and five through mid on, 9 through midwicket, and 20 behind the wicket on the on side with deft flicks, glides, and that patented whip off his hips.

Between them, they destroyed every bowler - thus, if Sewhag was particularly severe on Naved ul Hassan, blasting 35 runs off 35 balls faced from that bowler including five fours and one six, then Gambhir was equally harsh on Sami, blasting him for 29 off 29 balls faced, including five fours, mostly silken drives through the off cordon.

For Pakistan, only two bowlers impressed. While Sami and Hassan banked on pace and where ritually dismembered, Abdul Razzaq brought sanity to the proceedings by slowing the pace down, bowling mostly from very close to the stumps, keeping the line wicket to wicket, and ensuring that the batsmen did not for the most part have too much room for their shots (32 balls to Sehwag yielded just 21 runs, including 3 fours; Sehwag for the most part was forced to score in ones (5) and twos (2).

The standout, though, was Kaneria. Given the ball as early as the 11th over - a one day-style bowling change, in keeping with the one-day pace at which the openers were going - Kaneria from the first over tossed the ball up, showing great control over flight; looping the ball high so it hit the deck and bit into it, and thus getting turn that was at times prodigious.

Kaneria proved to be the sole wicket-taker on the day. In his first spell of two overs, before tea, Gambhir had danced down the track to a delivery and lofted him high over wide mid on for a one bounce four. When he was brought back into the attack after tea, Gambhir to the first delivery danced down again - but Kaneria kept that delivery flatter, and quicker; as a result, Gambhir failed to get under the ball and get the elevation he needed. The opener's flat hit went straight to mid on and Naved ul Hassan went down on his haunches to hold well (113/1).

The most notable aspect of that first wicket partnership was the overall pace of run getting -- the first fifty of the innings came off a fast 53 balls; the second fifty, if anything, was even faster, off just 48 deliveries (India's third fifty, thanks to the loss of a wicket, plus tighter bowling by Kaneria in particular, was to take 77 deliveries).

The corruscating brilliance of strokeplay by the two openers was what took the fight out of the Pakistan side -- by the 15 over, with India's score already in the nineties, the fielding side was reduced to the sort of spread out formations and defensive setings that would have been more appropriate for a one day chase on a good batting track, than day two of a Test defending 312.

Dravid, the one drop batsman, started with a fluent cut through point. While never as aggressive as Gambhir, the Indian vice-captain ensured, with some clean driving on the on and cutting through point, that he didn't release the pressure the opening pair had piled on the Pak bowlers.

When the umpires figured light was fading too drastically to permit play to continue, Sehwag was batting 95 off 121 deliveries; and Dravid had made 39 off 80.

Forty overs had been bowled in the day; leaving the game, at the end of day two, some 50 overs in deficit. India closed on 184/1 - just 128 behind Pakistan, with nine wickets in hand and, by any yardstick, comfortably in the driver's seat.

For India, day three would need to be about consolidation at speed, with the team looking to rapidly erase the deficit, if possible in the extended first session, and to then bat Pakistan out of the game before stumps are drawn.

For Pakistan, the ask is tricky - somehow, they have to breathe fresh life into a battered bowling lineup; somehow, they have to find ways of containing, and dismissing, the Indian batsmen; somehow, they have to find a way to make their catches stick.

Somehow, they have to find a way back out of the hole the bats of Sehwag and Gambhir dug for them today.