Sehwag back from injury, with a bang

For two days, Virender Sehwag was trying hard to meet the 7.30 am deadline to play his comeback match in the Capital's club circuit. While he had to skip his usual teams of choice � ONGC and Collage Group � in the process, the India opener was third time lucky on Tuesday, as he played alongside a few close friends for Rajnigandha Cricket Club in Lala Raghubir Cricket tournament.

The venue was Modern School grounds and a strong opposition in Air India, sprinkled with current and former first-class players, fitted in Sehwag's scheme of things ahead of the Asia Cup.

The India opener showed his complete recovery by fielding in the deep and even bowling the final over and claiming two wickets. But that was a little trailer. The real Sehwag show started past 1 pm, when he opened the innings while chasing 297 in 40 overs. Sehwag scored 69 off 38 balls, with eight fours and four sixes. But the knock was viewed independently from the context of the Group-B league game.

All shots in bookThe first two deliveries were cracked to the point boundary and the third went for a straight six. The 50 on board came within the first three overs, as Sehwag played and missed just once. He had rehearsed all the shots in the manual within the first five overs, including the upper cut he had innovated.

A club game may not be the exact indicator to his form but Sehwag's intent at the crease showed a method amid the madness. He presented the full face of the bat to each ball, allowed 14 dot balls, and ran 11 singles and a double.

Sehwag was dismissed as he tried to go under and hit a fast off-break from Ajit Chandela to be caught at wide long-on.

Looking unhappy to have missed out on more vital match practice � he will play for ONGC in another tournament on Thursday � before leaving for the Team India camp in Chennai, Sehwag still enjoyed the company of his friends in the dressing room as the match simmered up to a high-scoring thriller. Amardeep Sonkar carried on his good work with the ball (4 for 65) to score 82 in the middle-order as Ragnigandha CC scored a two-wicket victory.

Brief Scores

Air India: 296 for 9 in 40 overs (C Madan 74, N Sharma 56, R Prakash 51, Deepak Joon 42, A Sonkar 4/65, V Sehwag 2/13, R Rathore 2/36)

Rajnigandha Club: 299 for 8 in 39 overs (A Sonkar 82, V Sehwag 69, T Jain 56, T Pant 35 n.o., K Singh 2/50, Y Chahal 2/52)