The very best of Seh‘whack’

Rajkot, Dec. 15: Virender Sehwag played the innings of his life to help India knock the Sri Lankans out in a high-scoring match and take a 1-0 lead in the five-game series here on Tuesday.

“This is my best innings in ODIs. I have played a few big knocks in Tests, but in ODIs there are very few. I will rate this high up the order. But when we reached 300 by the 36th over, we knew that we could cross 400,” said Sehwag after his 102-ball blockbuster.

The opener smashed the ball to smithereens as he sent it to the boundary 17 times and whacked it into the stands on six occasions to notch up a career-best 146 that propelled India to 414 for 7 aided by useful contributions from captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (72) and the seasoned Sachin Tendulkar (69).

The Lankans made a valiant attempt but fell three runs short of the chase despite the lion-hearted efforts of Tillakartne Dilshan (160), Kumar Sangakkara (90) and Upul Tharanga (67).