Virender Sehwag at HT-Mint Asia Summit 2019: Former India cricketer reveals hilarious mid-pitch conversation with Ganguly in match against Kiwis

Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag was at his inimitable best when he took to the stage during HT-Mint Asia Leadership Summit 2019 in Singapore on Friday. Sehwag, who is regarded as one of the most explosive batsmen to grace the sport, revealed a hilarious mid-pitch conversation with former skipper Sourav Ganguly during a match in 2001. Sehwag was referring to an incident that took place in the Coca Cola Cup in Sri Lanka.

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The reason why this series holds a special importance for Sehwag is because he was asked to open the innings for the first time for ‘Men in Blue’. Sehwag featured in middle-order in his first 11 ODIs and in his 12th outing, he was tasked with opening the innings against New Zealand.

In his first three innings as opener, Sehwag had scores of 33, 27 and 0 but things changed drastically for the good in the fourth outing as he smashed a scintillating ton against New Zealand to help India win the match by seven wickets. Sehwag has now revealed a brilliant mid-match conversation between him and then-skipper Ganguly.

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In the 11th over of chase, Sehwag hit Daryl Tuffey for four boundaries and one massive six to put India on top in the match. The former opener revealed that despite repeated pleas from Ganguly to curb his natural instincts, he kept hitting him for runs and the skipper finally ran out of patience and told him off.  

At #HTMALeadershipSummit, @virendersehwag opens up about mid-pitch hilarious conversation with @SGanguly99 about hitting boundaries

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“I went in as an opener with captain (Sourav Ganguly) only. I was hitting boundaries and Daryl Tuffey came to bowl and I hit him for a boundary,” Sehwag revealed during HT-Mint Asia Leadership Summit 2019. “So Dada came up to me and said ‘we need five runs per over because we are chasing only 265 and we have got it.”

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“I said okay and then hit the second ball for a boundary. He came up to me again and said ‘we have got runs for next over also’. Then I hit a boundary again and he said ‘we have got runs for three overs so please take it easy’.”

“Then I hit the fourth four and he came up to me and said ‘are you going to listen to me or not’? I said yeah but i cannot miss full tosses,” Sehwag added.

First Published: Sep 06, 2019 16:40 IST