Virender Sehwag rattles South Africa

The Sehwag storm struck South Africa with full force and pretty much blew everything along its way to a 13th 150-plus score. Sehwag rattled them with a vicious assault on the new ball, put behind him the Gautam Gambhir run-out, and after a brief quiet punished them some more. His 87-ball hundred would have been even faster but for that lull of 10 off 21 balls. Amid the mayhem, it was easy to forget the cool pleasant breeze that Sachin Tendulkar's 92nd international century was.

Sehwag's onslaught started when Dale Steyn failed to get any swing. The storm started with a gentle little flick past midwicket and then came three boundaries in three balls in the third over: placed over point, whipped to square leg, and slashed past point. Morkel got the treatment in his third over. Three boundaries through the off side, one off a 152.6kmph delivery. Wayne Parnell replaced Morkel immediately, and immediately he was carved for a four and a six into the rubble of a stand being reconstructed. From one sight of debris to another.

The next ball Sehwag faced he off-drove for four, and then came the run-out. It was time for drinks and Sehwag threw away his protective gear in disgust. He batted cautiously till lunch, but when he came back, the cautious approach had been thrown out, and he was blazing away again. Just that he had a determined, blank look on his face until he reached the hundred. No chirping, no talking to the umpires.

Again it was Steyn who faced the barrage. Punch, whip, steer, 10 runs off three deliveries. Steyn to Sehwag then: 11 balls, 25 runs, five boundaries. Paul Harris, meanwhile, didn't have the luxury of a big score and bowled round the stumps, and was slog-swept and inside-outed by Sehwag for a six and a four. Back came Morkel, the best bowler on the day. He gave Sehwag width with three deep fielders on the off side. One to the left of deep point, and one to the right. Sehwag 89 off 72, Tendulkar 38 off 61. India 165 for 2 in 30.2 overs. And South Africa's two best bowlers negated.

Some toying was to be done, and both did that with paddles from outside off, reverse-sweeps, clips past midwicket. After a blip in Nagpur, Sehwag was back to the business of converting his centuries to 150-plus scores.