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| June 24, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427 |
Birthday boy Sarwan celebrates in style
BASSETERRE (St Kitts), June 23: West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday by becoming the first man to hit six fours in a Test over.
South African Lance Klusener and Australia's David Hookes once hit five fours in an over, but Sarwan is the first player to stroke six fours.
His team mate Brian Lara holds the record for most runs scored in a single Test over on 28.
Sarwan was 113 not out with Shivnarine Chanderpaul on two as the West Indies reached lunch on the second day of the third test against India on 362 for three in their first innings.
The West Indies owed their commanding position mainly to a stand of 203 that Sarwan and Daren Ganga, who scored 135, shared for the second wicket.
The attacking Sarwan faced 164 balls and hit 17 fours and a six. Ganga nudged his runs off 294 deliveries but also stroked 15 fours.
India took the new ball immediately it was due an hour into the day's play, but Ganga moved untroubled to his third Test century nine balls later when he put fast bowler Munaf Patel through the covers for four.
Patel's next over proved a nightmare for him, and it started when Sarwan drove the first delivery through the covers for four.
Sarwan hooked the second ball to the square leg ropes for another four, and he drove the third uppishly through cover for his third boundary of the over.
Patel was unlucky not to dismiss Sarwan with his next ball, which found the inside edge of the bat before scooting to the fine leg fence.
Perhaps imbued by his good fortune, a daring Sarwan cut the fifth delivery between the slip cordon and gully for four.
The shaken Patel was probably desperate to end the over, but his sixth delivery was ruled a no-ball – which Sarwan cut past point for four.
Patel bowled the ball again, and while he managed to send down a legal delivery he pitched the ball short and wide of Sarwan's off-stump.
To Patel's relief, Sarwan played the ball gently to point.
No run was taken.
It was the fifth time in Test cricket that an over had yielded 25 runs.
The run glut rushed Sarwan from 75 not out to 99 not out, and he reached his ninth century with the third ball of the next over when he took a single to midwicket off the bowling of fast bowler Shanta Sreesanth.
Patel's woes were eased in the fifth over before lunch when Ganga pushed forward and edged a delivery onto his stumps.
The battered paceman's brow was unfurrowed further two overs later when he trapped Lara leg-before for 10 with a delivery that pitched on the left-hander's off-stump and held its line.
Patel went to lunch with figures of three for 118 from 24 overs.
On Thursday, contrasting innings by Chris Gayle and Ganga earned the West Indies the honours on the first day.
The West Indies reached 207 for one on a day shortened to 64 overs by rain.
Gayle slammed a belligerent 83 off 127 balls with eight fours and five sixes. Together Gayle and Ganga put on 143 for the first wicket.
Gayle seemed to take little heed of the change of pace and in Harbhajan Singh’s third over launched sixes over long-on and long-off.
The aggressive opening batsman seemed headed for what would have been his eighth Test century, but he played a role in his own dismissal in the seventh over after tea.
Patel came around the wicket to the left-handed Gayle, who chose not to play a delivery that was pitched on his off-stump and looked down in horror as the ball held its line to send the stump tumbling down the ground.
Scoreboard
West Indies (1st innings)
C.H. Gayle b Patel 83
D. Ganga b Patel 135
R.R. Sarwan not out 113
B.C. Lara lbw b Patel 10
S. Chanderpaul not out 2
EXTRAS (LB-8, NB-11) 19
TOTAL (for three wkts, 99 overs) 362
TO BAT: D.J.J. Bravo, M.N. Samuels, D. Ramdin, P.T. Collins, J.E. Taylor, C.D. Collymore.
FALL OF WKTS: 1-143, 2-346, 3-362.
BOWLING (to-date): Munaf Patel 24-2-118-3 (8nb); Sreesanth 20-6-47-0 (1nb); Kumble 32-6-92-0 (2nb); Harbhajan Singh 17-1-72-0; Sehwag 6-0-25-0
INDIA: V. Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, V.V.S. Laxman, R. Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, M.S. Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, A. Kumble, S. Sreesanth, Munaf Patel
UMPIRES: R.E. Koertzen and B.G. Jerling (both South Africa).
TV UMPIRE: C. Mack (West Indies).
MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).—Agencies
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