Sachin the master and Sehwag the butcher
If you are a fan of Indian cricket, the Sunday game in Delhi would have made you very happy

"Whatever you do, I can do better." • AFP
It was my dream to watch a good Virender Sehwag innings live and write an account of the day. I have watched matches in stadiums since 2005, my under-grad days, and it's an addictive exercise. This was the first time I got to watch Sehwag in the flesh.
Since it was a marquee game, the stadium was packed. With all the security checks and general crowd mismanagement by the authorities, we missed the first three balls. I was heartbroken, because I had wanted to watch Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting walk in together. However, I was relieved to see that it was Dwayne Smith and not Ponting who had accompanied Tendulkar.
All the spectators watched Tendulkar's entry with bated breath, regardless of the team they supported. Everyone must have cheered his defensive prod as much they did as his trademark straight drives or his vicious pulls to the boundary line. Shahbaz Nadeem became the darling of the crowd because he dropped a catch off on 37. It was only when Tendulkar was dismissed that you could make out the difference in allegiances.
I had already got my money's worth from seeing Tendulkar bat. But I soon realised that was only the appetiser, because the main course was to be served by the artist and the butcher - Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag. From a spectator's point of view, both styles were equally appealing. While you could hear a loud thwack when Sehwag struck the ball, it was only when you saw the ball race towards the boundary that you realised Jayawardene had made contact.
I'd have preferred to see Ponting bat rather than sit in his pads in the dugout.
In between all the Sehwag-Jayawardene mania, Harbhajan Singh entertained us when he got hold of a kite that had floated down to the ground.
I usually try to get tickets for the East Stand, which has a better view, but this time I only managed to get seats in the West Stand. It was fascinating to watch all those mobile phone flashing across the stand to capture Tendulkar at the boundary line, the closest many fans would get to him. The good thing about players like Tendulkar and Harbhajan is that they acknowledge their supporters wherever they play, making it a point to wave to the crowd.
As the match was drawing to a close, with Daredevils needing seven to win (and Sehwag on 91) David Warner became the villain of the day as he clipped a boundary and prevented Sehwag from getting a hundred before the match finished.
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Prithvijit Roy grew up watching Tendulkar, Ponting and Sehwag terrorise bowlers all over the world. At 26, today he works as a consultant in a research firm and travels across the country.