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Creating records and breaking them: Virender Sehwag’s unique connection with March 29

Hindustan Times | By
Mar 29, 2020 03:35 PM IST

Virender Sehwag was like a tornado, that hit cricket’s purists hard. Gifted with immaculate timing and supreme hand-eye co-ordination, Sehwag showed little respect and regard for textbook cricket and towards bowlers.

Virender Sehwag’s was a career that rewrote cricket’s rule books. For years batting in Test cricket, more so as an opener, was all about technique & grit. It was about weathering a storm and laying a foundation. But one man changed it all. Virender Sehwag was like a tornado, that hit cricket’s purists hard. Gifted with immaculate timing and supreme hand-eye co-ordination, Sehwag showed little respect and regard for textbook cricket and towards bowlers.

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On March 29, 2004, he showcased his ability to brutalise a bowling attack. India had suffered immeasurably at the hands of arch rivals Pakistan over the years, especially when playing away from home. Sehwag erased all those painful memories with a knock for posterity as he slammed India’s first Test triple century in Multan. A display of attacking batting at its best, Sehwag entered the history books as he hammered 39 boundaries and six sixes to score 309 against Pakistan and earned the moniker ‘Sultan of Multan’. 

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He shared a 160-run opening stand with Aakash Chopra and then a 336-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, who stayed unbeaten on 194 after Rahul Dravid decided to declare the innings. India went on to win the match by an innings and 52 runs.

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Exactly four years later the ‘Najafgarh ka Nawab’ went ballistic yet again, this time on home turf, at the historic Chepauk stadium in Chennai. Sehwag slammed 319 off 304 balls against South Africa and that remains the highest Test score by an Indian. He smashed 42 boundaries and five sixes in the innings. India were in a good position but South Africa managed to grind out a draw.

Sehwag retired from international cricket in 2015. He will be remembered for playing a pivotal role in India’s rise to the number 1 rank in Test cricket in the first decade of the 2000s.

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