Top 5 bowling efforts by Virender Sehwag

As one of the best openers in world cricket in the last decade, Virender Sehwag’s belligerence and propensity to tear down any possible bowling attack with virtually zero footwork is widely known. His excellent reflexes and immaculate hand-eye coordination made him achieve feats that others could only dream about. Such had been his promise during his early years in international cricket that the then Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly decided to sacrifice his opening spot for Sehwag.However, the more one speaks about his batting, the more are his exploits with the ball forgotten. Although sparingly used, Sehwag was a decent part-time off-spinner who could provide useful breakthroughs when the team needed him to. 40 Test wickets in 104 matches and 96 of the same in 146 ODI innings aren’t much, but considering the fact that a major fraction of his career overlapped with those of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, opportunities have been limited indeed.With him announcing his retirement from international cricket and the IPL on Monday, let us have a look at five instances when Sehwag the spinner thrilled Indians, creating magic with the ball.

#5 2/24 vs Australia

Virender Sehwag had a big role to play in India’s first ever Test win at Perth

After the controversial Sydney Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2007-08, a rattled India took the field with only four specialist bowlers including a single frontline spinner at Perth in the 3rd match of the series. As a result, it was Virender Sehwag who had to shoulder the responsibility of the fifth bowler in the final innings of the match after RP Singh had done short work of the Australian batting line-up in their first innings.

Frustrated with Adam Gilchrist defending deliveries for almost an hour, Kumble decided to toss the ball to Sehwag for a change. In the third ball of the 61st over, the canny slow-bowler got the better of Gilchrist with an outstanding delivery. With the ball pitching outside leg stump, the southpaw was invited for a sweep, but he missed it entirely and the ball ended up knocking his leg stump instead.

But Sehwag wasn’t done yet. In his next over, he forced newcomer Brett Lee onto the front-foot and induced a thick inside edge off his willow. The ball flew towards silly point where VVS Laxman made no mistake at completing a low catch. Despite a fighting half-century from Mitchell Johnson later, India emerged victorious at the WACA for the first time ever.

#4 2/32 & 2/39 vs West Indies

The 2006 tour of West Indies saw Sehwag’s off spin reach its zenith

The India tour of West Indies in mid-2006 is often regarded as the prime of Sehwag’s bowling achievements. The tour, especially the Test series, gave birth to a spinner who was more than merely a part-timer whiling away with the cherry and completing overs quickly. Sehwag, the offie, was for the first time in his career beginning to be taken seriously.

The Nawab of Najafgarh struck in the very first Test itself claiming 2/32 in the second innings of the match. He sent back Shivnarine Chanderpaul with a slightly short of a length delivery that carried an edge to Dhoni, before dismissing a well-set Dwayne Bravo with a flighted one outside off that deceived him completely, swooping in between bat and pad and assisting an admirable stumping by the wicketkeeper.

The flight worked for him in the fourth innings too when he managed a poor cut from Denesh Ramdin which Rahul Dravid held on to at first slip. Six balls earlier, he had outfoxed Bravo once again, the ball drifting away this time and taking an edge back to Dhoni with West Indies struggling at 220/6.

#3 5/104 vs Australia

When Virender Sehwag came to India’s rescue at Kotla, with the ball!

Deciding to bat first in the third Test of the Indian leg of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in late 2008, the home team made merry on a batting-friendly surface until they declared their innings at 613/7. Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan disappointed majorly in their quest of scalping an Australian wicket and with only 4 frontline bowlers in the team, skipper Anil Kumble was forced to turn towards Sehwag for help.

By the time the visitors were dismissed for 577, the part-timer had conceded at an excess of 100 runs, but had claimed 5 major wickets in his 40 overs. Never before, and certainly, never again in his career had he bowled so many overs in a single innings or picked up a 5-wicket haul.

His first victim turned out to be Matthew Hayden in the second ball of the 58th over when the batsman was adjudged leg before by Billy Bowden. Ricky Ponting was lured out of the crease and the ball turned sharply missing everything only to land on the stumps. A similar flighted one deceived Michael Hussey in the 102nd over and castled him after pitching on middle and off. Continuing to turn the ball every now and then while bowling a tidy line, Sehwag soon got the better of Shane Watson and Cameron White, the former stunned at the way the ball knocked back his leg stump after pitching outside off.

#2 3/59 vs Australia

Virender Sehwag came into the Indian team as a lower order batsman who could bowl

During the initial stages of his international career, Sehwag was chiefly a lower middle order batsman. During the first ODI in the Australia tour of India in 2001, Sehwag was sent out to bat at No. 6 with India in a precarious situation. Along with Rahul Dravid who marshaled the resources expertly in the middle overs, Sehwag scored at slightly above run-a-ball and the duo put up a century partnership in just 96 balls.

With Hayden going big guns in a chase of 316, Australia appeared to be closing in on their 11th consecutive ODI triumph until the southpaw was adjudged lbw somewhat unfortunately to Sehwag just a run shy of a century. New to the crease and not in the best of forms, Damien Martyn was soon caught behind in the off spinner's next over. 34 deliveries later, it was the Australian skipper’s turn to walk back to the dressing room with Sehwag having claimed his third victim of the night.

The then 22-year old Delhi-ite finished the match with figures of 3/59 off his 9 overs which along with his resolute 54-ball 58 earned him his first Man of the Match award in limited overs cricket.

#1 4/6 vs Bangladesh

Sehwag’s destructive spell of 4/6 flattened Bangladesh in 2010

One of the many virtues of MS Dhoni has been his utilization of part-timers in limited overs cricket. Both Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag had flourished under him, the former eventually going on to win the Man of the Tournament award in the memorable 2011 ICC World Cup.

India faced Bangladesh in the second match of the 2010 Asia Cup at Dambulla. Having won the toss, Shakib-al-Hasan decided to bat first – a decision he came to regret heavily soon after. Dhoni introduced Sehwag into the attack immediately after Ravindra Jadeja had reduced Bangladesh to 155/5 in the 30th over. It turned out to be a masterstroke as Sehwag ended up with four wickets for six runs – the joint-second cheapest four-wicket haul in history.

During his 17-ball effort, the right-hander mixed things up quite a bit. He emphasized on a lot of flight and it worked once a regular delivery turned in sharply from outside off and startled Mushfiqur Rahim who bat-padded it straight into Dhoni’s hands. With the wind blowing across the ground, Sehwag was getting a slight drift that seemed to make all the difference. The results were evident soon enough with the remainder of the tail cleaned up within 5 balls in the 35th over.