What more can you say

On Viru

The Solo

Like Robin Hood, Virender Sehwag looted the rich, the Sri Lankan bowlers, for the good of those rendered uncharacteristically poor, the Indian batsmen. Sehwag played the Test series in a different universe, and Sri Lanka's proximity to a win was always inversely proportional to the time he spent at the crease. In Galle he batted for 348 minutes before running out of partners. Another batsman might have scored a boy-on-the-burning-deck century in such circumstances, but Sehwag dealt out some fire of his own. Off 231 balls he scored 201; the rest - extras included - added 128 in 261 legal deliveries. Sehwag made it look so simple it was breathtaking, finding gaps in the field that other batsmen don't know of. The statistic of the innings: he took 70 runs off 77 balls he faced from Ajantha Mendis. At 199, he refused singles twice, shielding the No. 11, as opposed to rushing manically towards the double-century, his fifth. In the end, the Sri Lankans couldn't out Sehwag at all, and had to dislodge Ishant Sharma to afford themselves a sigh of relief.

more on the week that was from cricinfo