August 9, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NOTTINGHAM (England), Aug 8: Virender Sehwag underlined his test credentials by completing an out-of-character century on a gloomy opening day of the second Test against England Thursday.

Curbing his instincts of all-out attack, the 23-year-old, dubbed India’s ‘Tendulkar Mark II’, mixed attacking off-side shots with patient defence, holding the innings together as his more experienced team mates floundered.

India, who opted to bat, closed on 210 for four at Trent Bridge after bad light ended the day after 66 of the scheduled 90 overs. Saurav Ganguly was on 29 and the fluid Vangipurappu Laxman on 22 not out.

Sehwag had batted for four-and-a-quarter hours before falling for a Test-best 106, failing to move his feet and playing inside a straight ball from all-rounder Craig White.

Viewed until recently as a player better suited for one-dayers and only in his seventh Test, he dominated a 74-run stand with Tendulkar after the loss of two quick wickets.

Then, after Tendulkar contrived to get out to one of the worst balls of the day, he did the same with Ganguly, the Indian captain reduced to a cameo as the pair put on 71.

Sehwag, who never became flustered despite repeatedly being beaten in conditions favouring swing, came out after tea to get into the 90s with consecutive boundaries off debutant fast bowler Steve Harmison.

He reached three figures with a risky flat-footed drive off the same bowler which burnt Michael Vaughan’s fingertips at point before reaching the boards.

In all he stroked 18 boundaries in his 183-ball innings. It was his second Test hundred after achieving the feat on his debut against South Africa last year.

For most of the first two sessions, England had looked in the ascendancy.

Nasser Hussain continued with his successful if unspectacular policy from the first Test of slow death by strangulation.

Apart from Matthew Hoggard, the rest of England’s pace attack — left-arm spinner Ashley Giles was left out to accommodate Dominic Cork’s swing bowling — fired down delivery after delivery well outside the off stump, daring the Indian batsmen to go for their strokes.

They rarely did. So restrained was the action at times that there seemed a risk of stalemate, with only 61 scored in the 28-over morning session.

By then the more ambitious Hoggard, who took seven wickets in the first Test, had added two more.

Consistently moving the ball in the air and off the pitch, he cut back his eighth delivery of the day to bowl Wasim Jaffer off an inside edge for a duck with just six on the scoreboard.

Rahul Dravid, who moments before had been squared up and beaten by a fine Hoggard leg-cutter, then shaped to drive but could only edge to debutant Robert Key at first slip to make it 34 for two. Dravid scored 13.

Sehwag, strong off both front and back foot, and Tendulkar were threatening to break free after lunch when the world’s premier batsman, offered a wide long hop from Cork, chopped the ball into his stumps as he shaped to pull.

Batting for almost an hour and a half, Tendulkar made 34, his aberration leaving India looking vulnerable on 108 for three.

Sehwag, who has modelled his game on Tendulkar although his stance is slightly more crouched, had one big escape at the start of his innings.

After opening India’s account with a sumptuous front-foot boundary off Cork, he then offered a tentative prod forward, the ball spinning back off his bat face and bouncing over his stumps.

Meanwhile, Cork was taken to hospital for a precautionary X-ray on his right knee which he injured while attempting a run-out