Much of the hype around the Delhi-TN game centred around the man from Najafgarh, Virender Sehwag. Fresh from smiling for the cover of Time (so what if they got the name of his coach wrong?) and skippering the national team in Dhaka, Sehwag did deserve some of the kudos for putting Delhi ahead of his new county, Leicestershire.And so there was a buzz around the ground — among the starry-eyed fans, the eager photographers and the clutch of TV cameras — as Delhi’s turn to bat came up and word spread that Sehwag was playing one-down. Then, with the match five sessions old, he walked in to whistles, screams and loud chants.But the game is always bigger than those who play it and mocks those who would try and overturn that basic fact. And so, four balls later, with no runs to his name, Sehwag was trudging back to the pavilion.At least the dismissal lived up to the occasion in its unusual nature. An innocuous delivery from M R Shrinivas hit the middle of the bat, bounced once and, a disbelieving Sehwag looking on, rolled on to hit the stumps.Star out, it was business as usual at the Kotla. The cameramen packed up, the fans surged towards the exit. Only the Tamil Nadu camp was celebrating, one man narrating the sequence to someone obviously important at the other end. ‘‘Saar, a big breakthrough,’’ was the lone English sentence in a highly annimated conversation.As Tamil Nadu took charge of the match, the Sehwag failure signified a general trend. Balaji claimed the wicket of Gautam Gambhir, S Ramesh and Hemang Badani scored against an attack including Sarandeep Singh. Message: Gambhir and Sarandeep can’t take their place in the national side for granted, the likes of Balaji, Ramesh and Badani willing and able to push them out.A small incident after Gambhir’s departure showed the cut-throat competitive nature of the contest. Balaji’s cry of delight and Ramesh’s less-than-friendly farewell to a fellow opener showed that in the big league there’s little room for tender mercies.Back, though, to Sehwag. As the cynics went on about stars not being interested in slogging under 40-degree heat for a Ranji game, one refreshing voice piped up. ‘‘What’s the big deal about Sehwag getting out on zero? All greats players have their off days, at least he came to play for Delhi!’’
