By Avishek Roy, IANS
Ahmedabad : Virender Sehwag will face volleys of short-pitched deliveries from a hostile South African pace attack when he takes guard in the second Test at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera here Thursday.
Sehwag’s power-packed 319 in the first Test in Chennai has given sleepless nights to South African think-tank which is trying to devise a plan to get rid of the dangerous opener. The strategy in the Motera Test will be to test the Chennai Champion with short-pitched bowling.
Coach Micky Arthur said they had not used the short stuff against Sehwag in Chennai, but here they would push him on to his backfoot right from the word go.
“We will have a look at him here. We will try to target him with short balls aimed at the body,” Arthur said about the strategy to stop Sehwag. “He played his first pull shot at 312 in Chennai. We will obviously have a look at the pitch. He is a compulsive cuter.”
It is not the triple-century alone, but the manner in which Sehwag gathered his runs at a breathtaking pace in Chennai, took life out of South African bowlers on the dead-track.
But the tinge of grass on the Motera pitch has given hope to South Africa that they can successfully execute their plan against Sehwag.
According to curator Dhiraj Parsana it is only in the morning session that there will be some juice in the wicket. But that will quickly evaporate in the searing heat.
“This is a sporting track. The wicket will help the seamers early on when there is moisture. We have left some grass on the wicket, but once the temperature soars, it will dry up. Now it is up to the teams to take advantage of the morning session.” Parsana told IANS.