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VIDEO: Virender Sehwag announces himself as an opener

Edited By : Cricket Country Staff | Aug 02, 2016, 08:09 PM IST

Published On Aug 02, 2016, 08:09 PM IST

Last UpdatedAug 02, 2016, 08:09 PM IST

Sehwag was always a reluctant opener and this was the first of the 38 international hundreds he went on to score.

Every great thing has a start, and this was Virender Sehwag’s. By the time Sehwag retired, he ensured he was one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time. However, it was this day, in 2001, the Delhi dasher showed the world that he belonged to international cricket, and as an opener.

India and New Zealand were in Sri Lanka to play a tri-series with the host nation being the third team. Captain Sourav Ganguly was woefully out of form and the other big worry for him was the absence of Sachin Tendulkar. Opening was an area of concern and he had also tried out Yuvraj Singh in that role. Sehwag was tried at that spot and even he failed to fire in the first few games. ALSO READ: Virender Sehwag recalls the day when ‘Amitabh Bachchan defeated Yamraj’

In the ninth match of the series at SSC, Colombo, New Zealand elected to bat and put up 264 on the board. Nathan Astle’s 108 set the platform for them. India had a task and again, Ganguly walked out with Sehwag.

What happened next is history. Sehwag launched himself on the Kiwi bowlers. The sixth over of the innings, from Kyle Mills saw Sehwag hit him for four boundaries and the 11th over from Daryl Tuffey went for 22. Sehwag put up a 143-run opening stand with Ganguly and that sealed it for India.

Sehwag was always a reluctant opener and this was the first of the 38 international hundreds he went on to score. Sehwag reached his hundred off the 69th ball and New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming put things in the apt way.

Fleming said, “We scored the highest score of the tournament and were fired up to defend it, but just one guy took it off from us. It was not slogging, it was clean hitting. I tried various things at him, it just didn’t work out.”

And that soon became the norm in most of the games Sehwag played.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand 264 for 7 in 50 overs [Nathan Astle 108 (143), Stephen Fleming 66 (91), Lou Vincent 45 (37); Ashish Nehra 9-1-30-3] lost to India 267 for 3 in 45.4 overs [Sourav Ganguly 64 (103), Virender Sehwag 100 (70), Rahul Dravid 57 (56)*] by 7 wickets.