Showing posts with label Shewag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shewag. Show all posts

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Shewags Theory

The word genius must never be used lightly, but it can be applied to Virender Sehwag's stroke-making ability. He is yet to earn the right to sit alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, or even Ricky Ponting, but he has an almost supernatural ability to sense a four. That's his genius.
Sehwag's batting is often associated with audacity, but I wonder if he sees it quite that way. The perception of risk in batting, or indeed in any sporting endeavour, is often directly proportionate to the sportsman's ability. Roger Federer sees winners in those deep shots that kiss the line, not risks. Similarly, Sehwag can see possibilities that don't exist for the less gifted. What appears a risk to many is for him an opportunity to create a boundary.
During the last World Cup in the West Indies, I had the chance to meet Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who has been pouring millions of dollars into a Twenty20 competition bearing his name in the Caribbean. I asked him why was he risking so much money without any tangible hope of return. Perhaps he had been asked the question before. "It all depends on how you look at a million dollars," he said. "What looks like a lot of money to you isn't to me. So what seems like a risk to you isn't one for me."
While watching fours rain from Sehwag's bat, I thought of that conversation. It is apparent that Sehwag sees what others are incapable of seeing. Hitting fours is not an indulgence for him. It is his lifeline, an utterly natural course for conducting his business, just as singles are for many others.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

My Failures Motivated me


Virender Sehwag admitted that being dropped from the Test side "motivated" him to concentrate better, enabling him to produce what he termed as his "best innings". Sehwag spent the whole of the last year out of the Test side but returned with two outstanding hundreds in consecutive Tests.
"When I was dropped from the Test squad I was hurt because I have a good record in Test cricket," he said after his 278-ball triple hundred on the third day of the first Test. "So I was looking to prove to myself that I am a good Test player and deserve a place in the team. But that feeling of hurt was also good for me because I was able to motivate myself and concentrate better."
Exactly four years earlier Sehwag started his other epic (309 against Pakistan in Multan) but rated this innings ahead of that one. "I will say this is my best Test innings because I made 300 and scored at more than run a ball," he said. "In Multan the wicket was better than this and the conditions were not hot and humid when we played there. I don't think I showed so much patience and concentration in Pakistan. I wanted to prove to myself that I belong here and there is no better way than playing a big knock and scoring a triple century."
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