Sehwag 219: fastest 200, highest ODI score
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Indore: At 5.42pm on Thursday evening, in front of a 40,000-strong crowd at the Holkar Stadium, with a perfectly-placed cut backward of point, Virender Sehwag became only the second batsman in one-day international history to score a double-century in an innings. His phenomenal achievement came in the 3223rd ODI to be played, and came 260 matches after Sachin Tendulkar touched the 200-mark against South Africa in Gwalior on February 24, 2010.
Sehwag - who came into the fourth ODI of the series against West Indies with scores of 22, 26 and 0 in the three previous games - needed 140 deliveries to reach the landmark. His mood from the start of the match, having won the toss and opted to bat, was belligerent and Sehwag never took his foot off the pedal. His fifty came up in 41 balls with a six in the 15th over - his fourth of the innings – and he sped to a 15th ODI century in 69 balls. Sehwag proceeded to cruise past 150 in 112 balls and showed no signs of tiredness.
On 170, he offered a catch to the deep but West Indies captain Darren Sammy dropped an easy catch. That was just the lifeline Sehwag need to reassess the situation; a slew of boundaries and coolly-collected singles took him past 190, and a flick off a rank full toss from Kieron Pollard eased him to 195, in the process raising 8,000 career runs.
Two singles in two balls followed, before Sehwag sent the packed house into raptures by cutting the third ball of the 43rd over, bowled by Andre Russell, to the deep backward point boundary for his 23rd boundary to reach his double-century. Immediately he set off down the pitch in animated celebrations as his India team-mates and the fans stood as one to cheer on a most enthralling century.
