Criminal Sehwag.........

The dire scenes of Sri Lankan bowlers at the historical Brabourne stadium can ignite a war of words between Indian and Sri Lankan govt. The way Sehwag humiliated the greatness of Muttiah Muralirtharan is a sin to be even remembered in Sri Lanka. For Sangakarra there was nothing on boards to stop the 'Jat Juggernaut'.

Its beautiful to watch such great display of the batting art against a formidable team but such standards make other greats look small. Dravid's solidrock knocks, Tendulkar's mild speed knocks, Laxman's wristy and slow knocks suddenly seems to be far from glamour knocks. In the same innings sachin got on to his fifty in 90 balls. Well, some years back this would have been a brisk knock and still meaningful in 2009. But the mere velocity of things on the ground just 12 hours back diminished every other feat on the pitch. Nothing more to say about Sehwag.

Records kept editing and Sehwag became first Indian to mop up 6 double hundreds. He fell 7 runs short of 3rd triple century, which would have made him immortal as no soul could ever touch this feat. Still 3 of 4 fastest double hundreds and 5 of 10 are to his name. Is not this more than enough?

Also dismissal of Angelo Mathews at 99, throw some vital statistics:

Matthews’ dismissal was the 67th time a batsman has been out for 99 in Test cricket, and the 14th time one has missed out on three-figure glory by virtue of being run out. Fourteen out of 67 – this is an extraordinary ratio which illustrated the madness that can envelop the human soul when the tastily steaming baguette of personal triumph is within nibbling distance. Also, 20.9% of batsmen out for 99 have been run out – yet of the 59,237 Test dismissals that had occurred as of 5pm GMT on December 3, 2009, only 3.5% have been run-outs.

Batsmen on 99 are thus six times more likely to run themselves out (or, perhaps, have a sadistic team-mate run them out), than batsmen who aren’t already mentally picturing charging around with their arms in the air, kissing their helmets, waving their bats at any available camera, and cuddling the non-striking batsman.

There are statistics and there are statistics. And this statistic reveals the inherent nature of the human condition, and the potentially fatal pitfalls of personal ambition, as much as any play by Shakespeare. Arguably. Expect it to be on all school curriculums around the cricket-speaking world within months.