Viru unchained

Virender Sehwag reminded the fans of his glorious past with a strokeful century, which propelled Kings XI Punjab to an imposing 226 for six against Chennai Super Kings in the second Qualifier of the IPL on Friday. At the time of going to the press, CSK were 100/2 in six overs with Suresh Raina (87*) and Brendon McCullum (0*) at the crease.

Sehwag is only the second batsman this season to score a century after Mumbai Indians’ Lendl Simmons, who had scored an unbeaten 100 against Punjab only. And this is not first time Sehwag has scored a hundred in IPL, his first coming in 2011 for Delhi Daredevils against Deccan Chargers.

It rained fours and sixes as Sehwag punished the hapless Chennai bowler with utter disdain to smash his way to highest individual score of this season, a magnificent 122. CSK skipper M S Dhoni shuffled his bowlers around but there was no stopping Sehwag, who entertained the Wankhede crowd with eight sixes and 12 fours in a 58-ball innings.

And it is not first time that Punjab have tormented the Chennai bowlers like this, since their previous highest score (231/4) had also come against the Dhoni-led side.

The hand-eye coordination, which has got Sehwag thousands of runs in international cricket, was at work again. He put on 110 runs for the first wicket with Manan Vohra (34) and flattened the Super Kings bowling attack, which has conceded a score in excess of 200 for the third time in the season to the same opponents.

The swashbuckling opener?s pyrotechnics, when everyone expected Glenn Maxwell as the bigger threat, caught the two-time former champions by surprise. No one was spared by the bespectacled Sehwag who looked unstoppable and completed his ton with a single in the 16th over off only 50 balls, the fastest hundred by any batsman in this IPL season.

Such was Sehwag?s domination of the Super Kings bowling that the smart knocks of Vohra, who hit 2 sixes and a four in 31 balls, and David Miller (38 in 19 balls) went into the shade. Super Kings bled runs as their two lead spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja conceded 44 and 48 runs respectively. Paceman Ashish Nehra was the costliest by giving away 51 runs for the wickets of Sehwag and George Bailey. Mohit Sharma gave away 46 runs while Ishwar Pandey was the only bowler to concede under 40. Kings XI got off to a blazing start after being asked to bat first on a good batting track. Both Vohra and Sehwag played shot after shot as the 50 was raised in just 26 balls before the scored jumped to 70 in six overs of power play. In the next over by Ashwin, the discarded India opener swung the off spinner for a huge six over long on before completing his second half century of the season in 21 balls.

Sehwag greeted left arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja too with a slogged six over long on. The 100 of the innings came up in the first all of the 10th over by the end of which the score looked a very healthy 109 without loss. Vohra miscued a pull shot and the skier was held well by Suresh Raina at short mid wicket to give Pandey and the harried Super Kings their first breakthrough in the 11th over.

When Nehra came off for his third over, Sehwag smashed his Delhi Ranji Trophy teammate for successive sixes over the straight field and 20 runs came off it. Sehwag and Maxwell carted Ashwin over the straight field for a six each before the bowler had some consolation by having the latter caught in the deep.