How Sehwag achieved the rare feat

When he is in the mood, there is no other batsman as dangerous as Virender Sehwag. The South Africans learnt it the hard way on Friday.

Between lunch and tea, 108 runs came from Sehwag's blade (with 133 runs added into team's total!). Scoring a hundred in a session is no mean achievement. This can be gauged from the fact that this feat has been achieved on only five occasions by Indian batsmen. Sehwag is the only one to do so twice.

This is how Sehwag made his runs in the second session (between Lunch and Tea) on Friday.

Sehwag's feats

Sehwag made plethora of records during his unbeaten 309 against South Africa at Chennai today. We take a look at some of them:

On 100, Sehwag scored back to back hundreds for the first time in his Test career. He had scored 151 against Australia at Adelaide in his previous innings.

On 121, Sehwag completed his 2,000 runs at Indian soil. By taking 39 innings to do so, Sehwag became the third fastest among Indians to do so after Azharuddin (33) and Tendulkar (38).

On 150, Sehwag became third Indian batsman to score 10 scores of 150 or more. Tendulkar (17) and Gavaskar (12) are the others.

On 165, Sehwag became the highest run-scorer for India in a Home Test against South Africa. Interestingly Sehwag himself held the previous record. He had made 164 at Kanpur in 2004-05.

On 170, Sehwag became the highest run-scorer for India in an innings against South Africa – home or away, moving ahead of Tendulkar's 169 at Cape Town in 1996-97.

On 200, Sehwag became the fourth Indian to score four double centuries in Test cricket. Rahul Dravid heads the tally with 5 double hundreds. Gavaskar and Tendulkar are the others to do so for India.

On 210, Sehwag achieved the rare feat of scoring a century in a session (scoring 100 runs between lunch and tea). In fact Sehwag scored 108 runs in the post lunch session. This was the second time Sehwag was performing the feat of scoring a century in a session- a feat no Indian has achieved.

On 237, Sehwag became the highest run-scorer in an innings at Chepauk, surpassing Gavaskar's 236 (not out) against West Indies in 1983-84.

On 238, Sehwag became the leading run-scorer for India against South Africa in home matches, surpassing Mohammad Azharuddin's tally of 499 runs. Interestingly Azharuddin played 8 innings for his 499, Sehwag took only four innings to surpass him!

On 281, Sehwag surpassed the previous Indian record of most runs by a batsman in a single day. At this point of time, he had scored 229 runs in the day, which obliterated his own record of 228 against Pakistan at Multan in 2003-04.

On 282, Sehwag achieved the highest score by any batsman in a Test on Indian soil, eclipsing VVS Laxman's 281 against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01.

On 300, Sehwag became the third batsman in Test annals (after Don Bradman and Brian Lara) to score TWO triple hundreds.

On 300, Sehwag became the third batsman after Mahela Jayawardene and Chris Gayle to score a triple hundred against South Africa.

On 302, Sehwag became the first batsman to score 250 runs in one Test Match day since Denis Compton against Pakistan in 1954. Previously Hammond and Bradman had achieved the same feat.

On 309, Sehwag equaled the highest ever score made by any Indian (Sehwag himself) in a Test match – v Pakistan at Multan in 2003-04.

194 runs of Sehwag's innings came in boundaries (41 fours and five sixes), which equals the best performance by an Indian. Sehwag himself (who else?) scored 194 runs in boundaries during his 309 against Pakistan at Multan in 2003-04.

PS : In his last 10 innings where Sehwag has scored a hundred, he has gone onto score at least 150- a feat not achieved even by Don Bradman!

Sehwag also became the first batsman in Test cricket to be involved in two double century partnerships for first two wickets in the same innings.