17th Anniversary: After Smashing 309 In Multan, Virendar Sehwag Had Veg Dinner
Seventeen years ago this day, swashbuckling batsman Virender Sehwag provided millions of his fans plenty to rejoice as he hammered India's first ever triple Test century in Multan - and went on to
However, Sehwag showed no signs of nervousness as he took on a world class Pakistani bowling attack comprising quality speedsters Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, and Abdul Razzaq, and a top-class off-spinner in Saqlain in Multan.
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"After playing that innings I got a better idea of Test cricket. My thinking changed and I gained a lot of self-confidence from that knock. I started thinking of playing 150-plus innings," Sehwag had said a few years later.
"At the time, I used to take the leg stump guard or stand outside the leg, and had an open stance. I used to have difficulty in playing some deliveries with that stance. I changed to the middle stump guard and now I can easily play deliveries on both sides of the stumps," he had said.
Sehwag's 309 in Multan was part of his purple patch that included 11 consecutive centuries that were all scores of 150-plus - a unique feat in the 144-year history of Test cricket. The streak began with the 195 against Australia in Melbourne in 2003 to and 201 not out against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2008. His 309 was the second century of the 150-plus scores.
Thirty-four Test matches after his historic Multan innings, Sehwag, aged 29 years and 160 days, smashed his second Test triple (319, 304 balls, 42x4s, 5x6s), against South Africa at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in 2008.
And, 17 Tests after the Chennai carnage, Sehwag came agonisingly close to becoming the first batsman in the annals of Test cricket to score three Test centuries, in 2009. But he missed the mark by a mere seven runs when Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan caught him off his own bowling for 293 (254 balls, 40x4s7x6s) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, breaking many hearts.
Only three other batsmen - Donald Bradman of Australia, West Indian Brian Lara, and Chris Gayle of West Indies - have scored two triple centuries in Test cricket. The only other Indian to score a Test triple is Karun Nair, who scored 304 not out against England in Chennai in 2016.
Sehwag had hit five centuries in 20 Tests before his 309 and had tallied 1,513 runs at 45.85 at a strike rate of 71.54 before Multan. After that Test, he went on to play 83 more Tests and ended his career with an aggregate of 8,586 runs at an average of 49.34 and at a strike rate of 82.21.
A product of limited overs cricket, Sehwag made a name in the longest format of the game - and gave a different definition to opening the innings in Test match cricket. If not for his weak eyesight - and a run of poor form in 2007 - he could have scored 10,000 Test runs.
