3. Upper Cut
The upper cut, an unorthodox shot over the slip cordon for balls bouncing outside off, was perfected and implemented to great effect in the 2003 World Cup by India's devastating opening pair, Sehwag and Tendulkar.
While the shot was played by a few before, it was Tendulkar who first did it with such frequency in an ODI, when he used the shot to counter the bounce of Makhaya Ntini and Nantie Hayward.
It is almost an off-side ramp shot where the pace of the bowler is utilised to hit over the slip cordon. In the 2003 World Cup, Sehwag and Sachin smashed the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis with frequent upper cuts that flew over third man.
Arguably, one among Sachin's best ODI innings was famous for those ravishing upper cuts. The shot is loaded with risk as an upper cut mistimed can land straight down the throat of deep third man.
In his latter years, Sehwag had the habit of playing this shot far too often, including in Test matches, and fields were set to invite him to play this shot, and invoke a mistake. Though the shot is quite common in world cricket now, it's best exponents remain Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
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