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By
Sidharth Monga
Cricket is the greatest leveller.
Form is temporary but class is permanent.
Its character and not talent that, more often than not,
triumphs in the face of adversity.
All clichés. Yes clichés will do. Yes clichés will do if we
were to define that wild Hyderabad afternoon. It was a day
made for clichés.
While Sachin Tendulkar once again took an opposition back to
the school, something more significant happened at the other
end. Virender Sehwag came through a rough phase, probably the
first one in his career, scored an uncharacteristic hundred
and silenced the disbelievers.
What difference just a day can make. Not so long ago, actually
just three days ago, there was Sehwag not able to put bat to
ball. On that Bangalore night, Sehwag’s face hid nothing. It’s
not a very good feeling when you have to
score at 7 an over from the word go and not
being able to lay bat on ball and to top it all, knowing very
well that you are the man who is crucial to the run chase. It
was just like getting caught in a car’s headlights and not
knowing what to do, except in Sehwag’s case, the car didn’t
run him down straightaway. It was a kind of slow torture,
where after every ball you hoped that nobody put their hopes
in you. A time when you wanted to dig a deep hole and escape
for sometime.
Sehwag went into the Bangalore game with a reputation of a man
who just doesn’t remember what happened yesterday. Hell a day
is a long time; you beat him all ends up with an unplayable
ball and can still find the next one out of the fence. But
there was Sehwag, for the first time in his career, carrying
with him the fear of failure; the fear of unknown. For the
first time in his career, he had let things from past bother
him. For the first time, demons from the previous game had got
into his head.
And three days later, just three days later,
there he was having a field day against the helpless Kiwis.
But it didn’t surprise me, not a bit. It didn’t surprise me
because any doubts as to his character were washed away when
he scored a century in NZ against NZ on what could be best
described as a nightmarish tour for all Indian batters. It was
that day when, without curbing his stroke play he tackled a
tricky pitch, I said to myself that this man was here to stay.
It was that day when I realised that failures will have to
work very hard to affect his mentality.
Much as Sehwag showed great character, there were two events
that signified and actually fuelled his return to form. Sehwag,
like any other honourable team man, had tried to slog so that
he could either score or get out and not waste overs. And from
not so far came Sachin, who comforted him with a few words of
wisdom, just like a big bother would. One can only guess what
Sachin would have said but it had the right kind of effect,
Sehwag soon realised he was not alone amidst a bunch of
ruthless and remorseless Aussies. There’s a lot written and
said about Sachin but after those two days spent with Sachin,
Sehwag would have discovered another fact about him, something
which is not celebrated that often, that he is the best man to
have on the other end when you are not in the best of forms.
The other thing which was so refreshing to see was the crowd
behaviour. Now, I can name, in single breath, at least 5
venues in India where the crowd would have started jeering
Sehwag in that innings, much like The Times of India which had
an opinion poll to know whether Sehwag should open the innings
anymore. The Bangalore crowd, on the other hand, showed the
affection they had for their hero and actually got behind him
when he was down. It was one of the most remarkable things
ever done by Indian crowds when they chanted “Sehwag, Sehwag”
before every delivery he played. Sehwag then knew he will
still be the crowd favourite even if he were to fail once
again. It’s an amazing feeling to have 35,000 people behind
your back, it gives you great kick. Bangalore people can now
afford to pat themselves on their backs because they have
played a major role in reviving the magic that Sehwag, just
for a few days, had lost.
After the Hyderabad hundred, after receiving the Man of the
Match award, when he would have sat down alone, recollecting
his thoughts, Sehwag would have realised one thing that no
career is complete without lean phases and what’s more, coming
back from some rough time gives you even more joy and
satisfaction. This is not the last time when he has a tryst
with poor form, he will have grater tests, but for now we can
say he has passed his first test of real poor scores in flying
colours.
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