Viru show, the only show in town !!

It was another extra-ordinary day of pummeling of Pakistan bowling by Viru and at times it looked that he was practicing in nets. He played in an audacious manner, which only he is capable of and stroked boundaries at will against pace and spin alike. No bowler made an impression on him except perhaps Shoiab to some extent. The sequence of 4s he hit off Rana, Sami, Kaneria, Afridi, Malik within the same over would have thoroughly demoralized the Pakistan attack and it was another story of total subjugation. Dravid played the perfect sheet anchor role but still hit plenty of graceful on side strokes that reflected his class. With records tumbling by the minute, it is a pity that the weather had intervened so many times. There are only 3 higher test partnerships in tests ahead of this pair but the most important one is a mere 3 boundary balls away – that is the 50 year old record of Vino Mankad and Pankaj Roy. After that there are only 2 other higher test partnerships left.

576 RS Mahanama & ST Jayasuriya Sri Lanka v India Colombo (RPS) 1997
467 AH Jones & MD Crowe New Zealand v Sri Lanka Wellington 1990/91

Viru has a very good chance of joining the select band of Bradman and Lara, who have 2 triple hundreds in tests but none of these records really bothered him as he was later quoted in this interview

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakvind/content/story/233296.html

What struck me extra ordinary in this interview was the way in which Viru took on Shoiab and dismissing him with customary non-chalance. I would have expected a more politically correct approach but again – hey ! with Sehwag, there is nothing conventional. I was one of the doubting Thomases about Sehwag’s pre-tour preparation. I was concerned by his pot belly ,extra weight and more important his reluctance to even practice in nets. But, perhaps he is a kind of player with a different mindset (yaar !! ye sub practice vaGairah is for those lesser lights!!) and different type of approach (kya farrukh patha hai..he Shoaib ho na Sami ho, mere hath me bat hai).

I hope that the weather does not play spoil sport again on the 5^th day.