6 sixes Indian fans can never forget

#4 Virender Sehwag at Multan, 2004 – Lofts six vs Pakistan to become the first Indian to score a Test triple century

Sehwag en route to his triple century

For a long time the Indian team boasted of having some of the best batsmen in the world but not even one of them had scored a triple century. Sunil Gavaskar became the first man to pass 10,000 runs in Tests but even his top score was nowhere close to 300. If that fact didn’t tense Sehwag’s shoulders as he took guard on an individual score of 295, there was also the pressure of batting against arch-rivals Pakistan on their home turf.

(Video Courtesy: Trevor Byers Cricket YouTube Channel)

The Indian team visited their western neighbours in 2004 for the first time in 15 years. They hadn’t ever won a Test match on a Pakistani ground. Virender Sehwag’s innings, until then, had already put the visitors in a very strong position but that minute there was bigger than just one match.

For the Nawab of Najafgarh though, the gravity of the moment was immaterial. He played his cricket with a fearless attitude that the circumstances could barely influence. Treating Saqlain Mushtaq with disdain, he simply skipped down the track and sent the ball flying over the rope.

With his audacious batting, he found a permanent place in the history books and left an indelible mark on the Indian fans’ hearts. The occasion didn’t matter to him. The opposition didn’t matter. And most important of all, the spin bowler definitely didn’t matter.