Legendary Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan recently shared a fascinating anecdote, involving him and former Indian cricketers Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid.
Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Muralitharan revealed that during India versus Sri Lanka Test match at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in 2009, Dravid had told Sehwag to be cautious when he was approaching his triple century and the swashbuckling opener regretted listening to the advice of his senior partner.
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“I remember he was batting on 290 against us in Mumbai and I think it was Dravid who told him to hang on as he can get to his 300 the next day. The next morning, he tried to tap it but got out caught and bowled and told me ‘I should have never listened to Rahul and instead gone after you’,” he said.
In that Test match, India had bundled out Sri Lanka for 393 in the first innings after being asked to bowl first.
In reply, the hosts tore apart the Sri Lankan bowling attack, with Sehwag unbeaten on 283 alongside Dravid in the middle at stumps on Day 2.
While the anticipation was that the dashing opener would hit his third triple ton in Test cricket quickly on Day 3, he fell for 293 while trying to take a single off Muralitharan.
It is pertinent to mention here that Sehwag had previously completed his maiden triple hundred by smashing a six off Saqlain Mushtaq in 2004 Multan Test.
Murali lauded Sehwag for his ability to play spin, citing that the Indian great could read what he was bowling.
"Sehwag could understand and read what I was bowling. He says he didn’t read me but what I can say is that he played me in a different manner (than the rest). He was very dangerous. I’ve said this many times,” Muralitharan, who has more than 1300 international wickets, remarked.
“For Sehwag, I would keep fielders because I knew he will take a chance. He thinks, on his day he can attack and take on anybody in the world. So, we would try and set a defensive field and wait for him to make a mistake and give us his wicket. But Sehwag’s attitude was like ‘I will give myself 2 hours and score 150 runs. If I bat the entire day, I will score 300.’ So he might get out after lunch but by then he would have scored more than a hundred runs. Most of the batsmen batting on 98-99 would look to complete the century by taking singles but Sehwag will go for a six. Sehwag didn’t care whether he got a century or not. He just went for his shots,” he further said.
Thanks to Virender Sehwag’s 254-ball 293, India piled up a mammoth 726/9 (declared) in their first innings and eventually won that Test match against Sri Lankan by an innings and 24 runs.
Sehwag represented India in 104 Tests, amassing 8586 runs at an average of 49.34 with 23 centuries. He also featured in 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is, scoring 8273 and 394 runs respectively.
