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The Paradox of Virender Sehwag

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It is not surprising that Sehwag broke the Indian record for the fastest century in one-day internationals. What is surprising is that he took so long to do it. The recent match between India and New Zealand was Sehwag’s 204th ODI match in his 10th year of playing one-dayers. Sehwag played his first ODI at No. 7 scoring one run off 2 balls against Pakistan in Chandigarh in 1999.

Most people who see Sehwag batting when he is full flow would be nonplussed by comparing his statistics in Tests with those in ODI. According to conventional wisdom, a person like Sehwag should have no business playing Tests. The law of averages dictates that he would throw away his wicket quite often and end up with a miserable average. On the other hand, we would expect him to be enormously successful in one-dayers, especially since he is an opener and can use the fielding restrictions to aid his natural game.

But take a look at his stats. He has a poor ODI average (34.30). The better one-day batsmen all have above 40 averages and the great ones (like Bevan) hover around 50. Sehwag has few centuries (11) for the number of matches he played. The only redeeming fact is his superb strike rate (101.66) which means that he takes less than a ball to make a run.

In Tests, Sehwag can truly be called a legend in the making. He already has an average (51.06) that most batsmen would die for. He makes his runs at a stunning pace (78.14) and already has two triple-centuries to his name, one of them at more than a run per ball. He invariably crosses 150 when he makes a century. 

Why is this so? How does he manage to throw his wicket away faster in ODIs than in Tests, even though the latter stage presents more challenges in making runs? One theory I have is that in Tests, Sehwag is constantly looking for runs and is able to dispatch the marginally bad ball whenever it occurs. In ODIs, he doesn’t have that luxury and he needs to throw his bat at even good balls, hoping he gets it right.

[Photo adapted and licensed from Flying Cloud]

Triple Century-Makers in Cricket Tests

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Younis Khan, playing the captain’s knock of a lifetime, scored a triple century to help Pakistan avoid a follow-on against Sri Lanka and overhaul the enormous Lankan total of 644/7. While the pitch is a graveyard for bowlers, fast and spin, that should not detract from the enormous achievement of batting for over 2 days against a good opponent. There have been flat tracks before, there will be flat tracks in the future, but very few people have managed to get a three in the hundreds column. In over 1900 Tests, there have only been 23 triple centuries.

Here are the century makers (the bolded scores were the record at the time)

  1. Andy Sandham, 325, England v WI, Kingston, 1930
  2. Don Bradman:
    1. 334, Australia v England, Leeds, 1930
    2. 304, Australia v England, Leeds, 1934
  3. Wally Hammond, 336*, England v NZ, 1933
  4. Len Hutton, 364, England v Australia, The Oval, 1938
  5. Hanif Mohammad, 337, Pakistan v WI, Bridgetown, 1958
  6. Garfield Sobers, 365*, WI v Pakistan, Kingston, 1958
  7. Bob Simpson, 311, Australia v England, Manchester, 1964
  8. John Edrich, 310*, England v NZ, Leeds, 1965
  9. Bob Cowper, 307, Australia v England, Melbourne, 1966
  10. Lawrence Rowe, 302, WI v England, Bridgetown, 1974
  11. Graham Gooch, 333, England v India, Lords, 1990
  12. Brian Lara
    1. 375, WI v England, St. John’s, 1994
    2. 400*, WI v England, St. John’s, 2004
  13. Sanath Jayasuriya, 340, Sri Lanka v India, 1997
  14. Mark Taylor, 334*, Australia v Pakistan, Peshawar, 1998
  15. Inzamam-ul-Haq, 329, Pakistan v NZ, Lahore, 2002
  16. Matthew Hayden, 380, Australia v Zimbabwe, Perth, 2003
  17. Virender Sehwag
    1. 309, India v Pakistan, Multan, 2004
    2. 319, India v South Africa, Chennai, 2008
  18. Chris Gayle, 317, WI v South Africa, St. John’s, 2005
  19. Mahela Jayawardene, 374, Sri Lanka v South Africa, Colombo, 374
  20. Younis Khan, 313, Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Karachi, 2009

Only three batsmen have hit two triple centuries: Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag. Other than Lara, no one with over 10,000 runs has hit a triple century. At the other end of the spectrum, Andy Sandham scored just 875 runs in his entire career.

England leads the way with 5 triple century-makers, followed by Australia and West Indies with four each, Pakistan with three, Sri Lanka with two and India with Sehwag. New Zealand is unlucky to miss out with Crowe getting out on 299. South Africa are also yet to open their account.

St. John’s and Leeds have the most triple centuries (3 each). England has conceded the most triple centuries (7) while Australia, perhaps not surprisingly, only just one. Except for Hanif Mohammad’s rearguard match-saving effort against the West Indies, all the triple centuries were made in the first innings of the respective teams.

Graham Gooch is the only person to hit both a triple century and a ton in the same match. Virender Sehwag hit the fastest 300 off just 278 balls. He may still do it again. Wonder who the next victim will be.