Super Sehwag torments New Zealand

New Zealand were given an early glimpse of the difficult task ahead of them in India as the home team moved into a strong position on the first day in Ahmedabad. Virender Sehwag sprinted to a century in just over a session to utterly demoralise New Zealand.

After that, it was a Sehwag treat for the sprinkling of fans who had turned up at Motera. In the third over, he jokingly signaled for a free-hit after Chris Martin overstepped. There aren't any in Tests, but that didn't stop Sehwag from carving the next delivery through covers for four to get his first runs. Two more off-side boundaries rounded off the over, and there was no slowing him down after that, despite several short deliveries to stop the drives.

Sehwag predominantly scored through the off side, cutting deliveries that were even fractionally wide, and skipping away from the stumps to play inside-out shots off the spinners. Despite scoring at a run-a-ball, there was none of the violence usually associated with that rate of scoring, mostly relying on timing and placement as he peppered the off side for 18 boundaries.

Sehwag was unfazed by the loss of Gambhir, taking two fours an over off offspinner Jeetan Patel three times, and galloped to 82 with 15 minutes to go for lunch but couldn't become only the fifth player to make a century in the first session of a match.

Sehwag had also toned down his aggression after lunch, and seemed to be struggling with his fitness; he rarely zipped through between the wickets, preferring to jog whenever possible and aksed for a runner after tea. He was hardly bothered by the bowling till he was well past his fifth Test hundred of the year - a near run-out in the sixth over being the only major moment of concern.