SK Flashback: When Virender Sehwag conquered India's demons in New Zealand

The first ever successful tour of New Zealand

Sehwag was the catalyst

As Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori confessed after the match, at that point, the home team were preparing for the worst. “We thought we’d have to chase 300 for the first time in a T20,” he said at the post-match presentation.

Commentators fumbled around to understand the significance of what had just transpired. Sehwag’s score read 18*(3), something never before or since replicated in an international cricket match. It is a rare list of batsmen who have had the courage to hit a six off their first ball of the innings – Sehwag himself had been the first Indian to do it, hitting Jason Gillespie for a six of the first ball in a 2004 match. Never before or after, however, has a batsman started off his innings with three consecutive sixes.

19 runs procured off New Zealand’s first over of the tour, bowled by their strike pace bowler, Sehwag had made a clear signal of intent. This 2008/09 tour was not going to be like the usual New Zealand tour. This time, it would be the visitors who would dictate terms and the hosts who would be made to look vulnerable. India lost the 25 February T20I though, but unlike their batsmen of the past, they were not getting bowled out or being caught lbw, they were mostly losing their wicket in search of big shots.