The Curse Of 300+

Well its was all cheers for Virender Sehwag the other day when he belted a 277 ball 300,the fastest triple hundred in the history of test cricket.But,in addition to this,there is also a harsh truth which is nothing but the result of that match which was a boring draw.Not the first time this has happened,but in most of the time the test match which has witnessed a batsman scoring a triple hundred has ended in a draw.The only thing that the fans could take home was some awesome shots and exciting batting by the batsman concerned.

Lets take a few examples concerning test matches having a triple centurion.Luckly the last time a batsman who scored a triple hundere for his team won the match for his team and that is Mahela Jayawardane who scored 374 runs to see his team win by an innings and 153 runs.

Then we have Chris Gayle's 317 against the same South Africa which once again made it into the batting record books as the match had as many as 8 centurions in that test.And then we have Matthew Hayden's 380 which off course saw his team through.But the opposition??Then the gr8 innings of Brian Lara-400* against England,his 375 against England,Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 versus India,Inzy's 329 against New Zealand-which Pakistan won by an innings and 324 runs,Mark Taylor's 334* which ended in a draw &finally Virender Sehwag's 309 against Pakistan which India won by an innings & 52 runs.

Taking stats together,there have been only 8 instances(out of 22) of a match producing a result which has a batsman scoring a triple hundred.

Virender Sehwag:The Record Breaker!!!

Well the last night,I just couldn't just believe in my own eyes when I turned my channel to Neo Sports to watch the first test between India and South Africa.And to be frank, today you can find me going through each and every cricket website to check weather there is something different than what I saw on TV.But,to no avail!

After I saw the first day's play by South African batsmen in Chepauk,I cursed myself and vowed not to watch the match anymore.But,it looked as though Viru had different plans.The man not only challenged the South African bowlers,but also crores of Indian cricket fans like me who had declared it as "All Over".And also for those people who came forward to criticize Viru whenever he put up a bad performance.

Earlier test stats shows us that his record was not an ordinary one when it came to only tests,keeping the facts about the other forms out of mind for the moment.The fact that Viru had gone well past 150+ after reaching 100 on previous 10 occasions was something special as hardly I knew about it-though being a avid cricket stat enthusiast.

All records put up by Sehwag are more the less known to each and everyone glued to their TV Sets or their newspapers turned to page number 21.Some more aspects that I could find regarding is that his second triple hundred made India in par with other sub-continent teams viz Pakistan and Sri Lanka,each of whom who have two triple centuries under their belt.Sanath Jayasuriya & Mahela Jayawardane for Sri Lanka,accompanied by Haneef Mohommed & Inzy for Pakistan.Out of them,only two of them have done it outside home,Viru(Multan) joining Haneef(Bridgetown).

It was a mistake done by the selectors to have dropped Sehwag for the home series against Pakistan -(which was found to have been his favourite team)last December. Not because of his Triple hundred,but because there was no questions about Sehwag's form when it came to tests.All was done taking into account his ODI form.With his fellowmen-Dravid & Tendulkar reaching their fourth double hundreds after attaining 30 yrs or more,it is really important to note that this man has done it at 29 itself.Perhabs Viru is the only one batsmen(keeping aside the big three,along with VVS Laxman-who form a different group altogether) to have scored a double hundred for India.The joint second highest double century scorer for India after Dravid(5), along with Gavaskar & Sachin(4 each).

An Indian win in this test would perhabs be the best possible treat because,rarely a team has produced a result with one of its batsmen scoring a triple hundred.