India-Pakistan tied match my favorite World T20 moment: Virender Sehwag

In what seems to be a rather excessive build-up to the India-Pakistan match at Eden Gardens, former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag has picked out his favorite World T20 moment. Sure enough, the dashing right-handed opener picked the tied match between India and Pakistan in the 2007 World T20 in South Africa.

“My best India v Pakistan moment is from our first match in the ICC World T20 2007, which was a tie. Nobody thought that the first encounter between the two countries in the first World T20, would be a tie. At the time, the rule was that if the match ended in a tie, it would go to a bowl-out,” Sehwag said.

Sehwag added that the Indians had practiced for the bowl-out. However, it was only the part-timers or just the batsmen who hit the stumps more often. The Indians won the bowl-out 3-0 after Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Robin Uthappa hit the stumps the most number of times.

“We had practiced for this prior to the contest, wherein Robin Uthappa, Harbhajan Singh and I hit the stumps the most number of times. So, I told MS (Dhoni) that I would like to bowl first. I was confident that if I go first, I’ll surely ‘disturb the furniture’, which is what actually happened.

“We were 1-0 up. This was followed by hits from Harbhajan and Uthappa. The stadium erupted thereafter. Harbhajan jumped on Yuvraj and hugged him. Everyone broke into a loud cry of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai!’ and started to sing along, ‘Chak De India’, which was quite popular at the time,” he recalled.

However, the former India opener stated that the Indo-Pak match at Eden Gardens will be much more intense as the one he faced.

“I think the scenes will be no different on March 19 when the two sides meet again at Kolkata.”

“It was, in every sense, an April Fool’s Day for me. It was my first game and I got out on 1. But it is during that match I witnessed the high intensity of an Indo-Pak cricket match for the first time in my career. I understood the significance of an India v Pakistan game and what that means for the players participating in these clashes,” he said.

Sehwag concluded by sharing his first experience of an India-Pakistan encounter.

“I came in at No.7 in that fixture and I was greeted by a string of abuses from Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi. So much so, that it appeared like Afridi was a mate of mine and was conversing only in expletives. Shoaib Akhtar, on whose bowling I got out, didn’t get a chance to sledge me because I was out first ball to him. Thereafter, I was waiting for a chance to return the favor when it was our turn to field.”

“I did abuse some of their players but didn’t go overboard as we Indians are a respectful lot and believe less in sledging-abusing and more so in playing the game.”