“Sachin scored 200 and see how much your Viru took!” I felt as if yesterday I heard these dialogues from my friends. I and a group of guys of my college watched that match of Sachin scoring double hundred from the TV room of our department. Almost all teased me for being a fan of Virendar Sehwag. Unfortunately, Sehwag could score only 9 runs in that match. Even so, I felt Viru may score a double hundred one day.
And wow! It happened… Viru scored 200!!! I was at office busy writing a Press Release. Office was empty that day as most of my colleagues were either on leave or left early. I’ve a habit of checking manoramaonline regularly. I saw the score board with Sehwag on 89! I told my colleague Shibu about the score. He said, “There is a possibility for Sehwag to score a double”… I really wanted a double hundred from Indian opener. But 200 is not an easy task!
Hmm… I checked the score board every now and then. 100, 130, 150, 170, 180, 190, 195, 197…. When Viru reached 197, score board did not move. Shibu and I were looking at each other anxiously. “Two Hundred for Sehwag” whispered Shibu! I thought he might be joking. He showed me some tweets appreciating Sehwag. Then I had to accept. My dream is now a reality!
Media said ‘Sehwag too scored 200’ at first. God come first, then only man… But when Sehwag scored 219, media and Indians accepted some records of God can be broken by human being too. One of my brothers posted in Facebook, “If Sachin is the God of cricket, Sehwag is Rajnikanth”.
In spite of two triple hundred in Test and a double hundred in One-day, there are still people who believe everything that Sehwag scored is out of luck. Lot of commentators and cricket experts criticizes him for not having perfect foot work and for not playing shots ‘with a beauty’. However, there is still a majority of Indian cricket fans who simply want him to smash every ball into boundary.
My request to the criticizers is that please don’t spoil the confidence of such a wonderful batsman! Let him score more and more without caring his foot work or perfection in shots. We already have many perfectionists in the team. He can never be another Sachin, Dravid or Ganguly. He is Viru, a simple and humble guy who always love to cheer up his crowd and co-players.