By Sirshendu Panth, IANS,
Kolkata : Showcasing sublime batting, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar stroked their way to authoritative hundreds in a double century partnership to keep India\’s nose ahead of South Africa on day two of the second cricket Test here Monday.
Sehwag (324m, 174b, 23×4, 2×6), playing his classic trademark strokes to all parts of the park, struck 165 while Tendulkar scored a blemishless 106, his fourth ton in as many Tests.
India finished at 342 for five at stumps, losing three late wickets, to be 46 runs ahead of their rivals on an Eden Gardens pitch which is still firm. V.V.S. Laxman (9) and Amit Mishra (1) were at the crease.
In the morning, resuming at 266 for nine, the visitors were all out for 296 in their first innings.
Sehwag blasted his 19th ton in 76 Tests, 18 of these coming in the first innings, as he put on 249 in 258 minutes for the third wicket with Tendulkar.
Sehwag picked up India’s first Test nemesis Dale Steyn for special treatment, plundering three consecutive boundaries in his second over, courtesy a drive past backward point, a short arm pull through square leg and another upper cut past point. Fifteen runs came from the over.
Morne Morkel received a similar battering from the Indian vice captain some time later.
The Delhi opener got to his three-figure mark by disdainfully despatching Wayne Parnell to the point fence with a grass-cutting stroke 44 minutes before tea to pump his fist, triggering loud applause from the 20,000-strong crowd.
Sehwag, who was dropped by Jean-Paul Duminy at 47 off Morkel, got to his hundred in 168 minutes off 87 balls with 16 cracking boundaries and two mighty sixes. When he was on 129, stand-in wicketkeeper A.B. de Villiers muffled a stumping chance off left-arm spinner Paul Harris.
Tendulkar was concentration personified as strokes flowed from the middle of his blade right from the outset. A cover driven four off the back foot to Parnell was the stroke of the day, as he took 112 minutes to reach his 55th Test half-century.
Old warhorse Tendulkar’s 47th century in 166 matches came 103 minutes after tea with a boundary off Wayne Parnell. In all, he batted for 249 minutes and faced 194 balls. This is his fourth hundred in successive Tests, starting with back-to-back centuries against Bangladesh followed by one against the Proteas in the first Test in Nagpur.
The South African bowlers could not put the duo under any pressure as the 100-run stand for the third wicket came off 102 minutes. Unable to contain the flow of runs, the South Africans resorted to negative bowling, with Harris and Morkel bowling to an on and outside the leg stump line.
Sehwag, however, departed when he failed to keep a cover drive off Duminy down. Ashwell Prince took a low catch at short cover. India were 331 for three.
For the addition of four more runs, Tendulkar fell in the very next over, edging a drive of a flighted Harris delivery to Jacques Kallis at first slip.
Fast bowler Dale Steyn was then brought on for a late burst, and he put a tentative Subramaniam Badrinath in all sorts of trouble before uprooting his stumps with a sharp off-cutter.
In the morning, resuming at 266 for nine, the South African last pair of Parnell (12) and Morne Morkel (11 not out) added 30 more runs in 18 minutes, thanks to some loose bowling by the Indians.
Zaheer finally brought the innings to an end by getting Parnell leg before with the third delivery of the second new ball to finish with figures of four for 94.
In reply, Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag gave the hosts a flying start, as they came up with some fluent shots to bring up the 50 in only 37 minutes.
Gambhir (25) was needlessly run out following a Sehwag faux pas while Murali Vijay (7) was lapped up behind the wicket when he poked a Morne Morkel delivery just outside the off stump.