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Cricket
The master and the blaster
K. Srikkanth
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag once again proved what has often been written in this column - the English attack is extremely ordinary. The opening duo's blazing partnership settled the issue in India's favour at Kanpur.
We all know about Tendulkar's ability with the willow, but the manner in which Sehwag has gone after the bowling in this ODI series has been very impressive indeed.
He `times' his strokes and is not a slogger. Sehwag also backs his natural ability and does not seem to be under any kind of pressure.
In Chennai, Tendulkar and Sehwag had got out at the wrong time to provide England with a hint of a chance. At the Green Park Oval, they were together long enough to take the game away completely from England. And Tendulkar stayed till the very end to ensure that there was no collapse on this occasion.
It was only right that Sehwag continued to open with Tendulkar and this combination should not be disturbed in this series. In fact, the Tendulkar-Sehwag pair appears more dangerous, especially on batting pitches, where they can very quickly `hit' the opposition out of the game.
Ideally, skipper Sourav Ganguly should bolster the middle-order, for in the absence of Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, he can provide the line-up with experience.
Earlier, the Indian bowlers once again performed a fine job by restricting England on a flat pitch after opener Nick Knight had threatened to take his side to around 240, which might have proved demanding for the Indians psychologically.
The Indian spinners cleverly bowled slower through the air, which made it more difficult for the Englishmen to strike them. Ganguly bowled usefully too, operating stump-to- stump at a reduced pace.
And Javagal Srinath continues to strive manfully. In this game, even as the others were getting punished in the early stages, he commanded respect. Hat's off to him.
www.krishsrikkanth.com
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