The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sehwag scintillates

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Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

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Sehwag scintillates

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 5. They came in large numbers, some of them leaving their home at the crack of dawn. Just as Virender Sehwag, who drove 40 kilometres from distant Najafgarh to report for the Lala Raghhubir Singh memorial cricket tournament semifinal at the Modern School, Barakhamba Road ground here on Saturday.

A glimpse of Sehwag was all they strove for and they got plenty as the exciting strokeplayer smashed a blistering 97 (52 balls), much to the delight of the 1000-odd spectators. That he ended up `man of the match' was in keeping with his knock as Oil and Natural Gas Commission defeated Rajdhani Sports by 88 runs, the latter never in contention.

This was Sehwag's fourth innings this summer in local cricket after that epic performance in Pakistan pushed his stock high among his fans. His last three visits to the middle had been disappointing and it was just a matter of playing the rewind button for Sehwag.

He remarked in lighter vein that he found these local `demons' far more demanding than Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar but he took the Rajdhani attack by the scruff. It rained fours and sixes — 10 fours and six sixes — as Sehwag treated his fans to a delightful display of aggression. When he fell at the score of 135, there was an exodus of spectators from the ground. They had had their fill even though there was another neat package of strokeplay presented by the in-form Gautam Gambhir, who scored his second century of this tournament..

Gambhir, a delightful left-hander with the quality to play almost every stroke in the book, was unstoppable and produced a professional show. He remained unbeaten on 102 crafted off 76 balls with 12 fours and one six. ONGC finished with an imposing total of 347 in 38 overs, which proved too big an ask for Rajdhani Sports.

In the final on Monday, ONGC will meet Indian Airlines.

The scores:

ONGC 347 in 38 overs (Gautam Gambhir 102 not out, Virender Sehwag 97, Sandeep S. Harma 33, Joginder Singh four for 57) bt Rajdhani Sports 259 in 31.5 overs (Damanjeet Singh 66, Pramod Bhati 49, Joginder Singh 40, Agnesh Surya 35).

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