Three hundred and nine, the day before

Virender Sehwag made 309 at Multan. It was the first triple century by an Indian in a Test match, it came off 375 balls, and it was finished shortly after lunch on the second day. By the evening of that day the innings it was part of had produced a different story, and that is the one the match is filed under.

The first day

India won the toss and batted. At lunch they were 104 for none from 29 overs, Sehwag 76 not out, Aakash Chopra 25. Sehwag's fifty had taken 60 balls and his hundred took 107.

Chopra went at 160 and Rahul Dravid, the captain, at 173, both before tea. Sehwag reached 150 off 150 balls. At tea India were 228 for two, Sehwag 155, Sachin Tendulkar 17. His double hundred came off 222 balls, and at 221 the card notes that he had passed Sanjay Manjrekar's record for the highest score by an Indian against Pakistan in Pakistan.

The new ball was taken after 82 overs. At the close India were 356 for two from 90. Sehwag was 228 not out, Tendulkar 60.

That is a day's play of 356 runs at almost four an over, in a Test, in Pakistan, on the first day of a series. Two wickets fell. One man made 228 of the 356.

The second morning

He reached 250 off 299 balls. Tendulkar's hundred came off 209. At lunch India were 467 for two, Sehwag 292 not out, Tendulkar 106.

The 300 came off 364 balls, with 38 fours and six sixes in it. Eleven balls later he was out, caught by Taufeeq Umar off Mohammad Sami for 309, at 509 for three in the 127th over. He had batted 531 minutes and hit 39 fours and six sixes. Nobody from India had made 300 in a Test before that Monday.

What the bowlers had

Shoaib Akhtar bowled 32 overs for 119 and no wickets. Shabbir Ahmed 31 for 122, none. Saqlain Mushtaq 43 overs for 204 and one wicket, Chopra's. Abdul Razzaq 15 for 61, none. Sami took Dravid and Sehwag in 34 overs for 110. Imran Farhat, a part-time bowler, had Yuvraj Singh caught and bowled in the 162nd over, which was the last.

Six bowlers, 161.5 overs, four wickets between them and a run out, 675 runs. Two of the four were Sehwag's partners. One was Sehwag.

The afternoon that replaced it

Tendulkar went on. At tea India were 588 for four, Tendulkar 165. At 675 for five, with Tendulkar on 194 not out, Dravid declared. The card records the score and the not out and nothing else, and the argument that followed is the subject of the other piece on this match.

Pakistan made 407 and, following on, 216. Anil Kumble took six for 72 in the second innings. India won by an innings and 52 runs on the fifth morning.

What 309 is on the card

It is the player of the match award, which went to Sehwag and not to the man left on 194. It is a batting line that reads c Taufeeq Umar b Mohammad Sami 309 375 531 39 6. It is the first entry in a list of Indian Test triple centuries that had, until that Monday, been empty.

Of the 309, 192 came in boundaries: 39 fours and six sixes. The other 117 were run. Nearly nine hours at the crease, and the innings around him closed at 675 for five from 161.5 overs, which the card gives as 671 minutes. He was there for 531 of them.

The declaration happened at the end of the same innings, six hours after he was out. It has a case for and a case against and twenty years of interviews. The triple century has a scorecard line and no argument at all, which is most of why it is the quieter of the two.

Full scorecard: Pakistan v India, 1st Test, Multan, 28 March–1 April 2004 →

••••••

No. 7 in The Other Guy, a series of 24.

NextThree minutes