Cricket: Getting Sehwag essential to win

Opener Virender Sehwag started his New Zealand tour at a gallop and in two one-day innings has hit 131 off 92 deliveries. Photo / AP

Project Sehwag, take three. The India opener began his tour to New Zealand with three consecutive sixes in the Twenty20 game at AMI Stadium and returns today having barely taken the foot off the accelerator since.

He kick-started the one-day series in Napier with an incandescent 77 from 56 and followed it up with 54 from 36 deliveries at Wellington before he was sawn off by umpire Evan Watkin's howler.

Of the 92 deliveries he's faced in the one-dayers he's hit 20 to the rope and two of them over it. Margin for error? About 3 sq cm.

Even his opponents sound awed. Ross Taylor, not averse to hitting the ball hard himself, said that despite wanting to get Sehwag out, there was a "bit of a wow factor" about watching him go about his business. "It's been amazing to watch but hopefully we don't get to see it [today]."

Kyle Mills, until Napier New Zealand's seam bowler of the summer, certainly won't want to see it. He must be having palpitations at the mention of Virender Sehwag's name. His 14 overs this series have cost 115 runs for just one wicket.

The knee-high full toss was not as evident in Wellington as it was in Napier but Sehwag still did not need such invitations to dispatch the ball to the midwicket boundary. With a tiny boundary to defend at AMI Stadium the task does not get any easier.

"There was a slight improvement to the batsmen other than Sehwag," captain Daniel Vettori said following Friday's rain-ruined second ODI. "We were reasonably disciplined but we've still got to do a lot of work on him.

"To try and stop him we have to be more consistent. We haven't got close enough to the mark.

"Destructive batsmen put people off their game plans. I wouldn't say you're intimidated but you're fearful of what's going to come, you never know what shot he's going to play. He can hit all around the park. I suppose guys run in and second-guess themselves at times about what's going to happen."

It seems trite, but the obvious remedy for the ills Sehwag causes would be to get him out early rather than waiting to frustrate him into making a mistake.

The fact Sehwag seems equally adept at smiting good balls to the boundary as he does bad means he is rarely frustrated for long. Twice at the Cake Tin he hit Iain O'Brien at catchable height through the offside and this might be an area Vettori feels he can exploit.

The fact New Zealand are only 0-1 down must be a positive as they were heading for a massive chase had the rain not fallen in Wellington. Ross Taylor was happy to admit they got away with one.

"Yeah, I think so. We were a little bit disappointed with the way we bowled. We've got the plans in place, we've just got to implement them."

With the series now truncated, Taylor said the thinking for today was that it was a "must-win".

Brendon McCullum, who Vettori will look upon as his answer to Sehwag, will be assessed this morning but is almost certain to relinquish the gloves to Peter McGlashan. That will mean Neil Broom will be favourite to mix the Raro again.

Vettori, whose wife Mary is expecting their first child any day, is at the ready to leave at short notice.