da esoccer bet： After drawing comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar for his masterly knockagainst New Zealand, Virender Shewag today disclosed that the battingmaestro had sent him a congratulatory message for his match-winninginnings yesterday
03-Aug-2001After drawing comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar for his masterly knockagainst New Zealand, Virender Shewag today disclosed that the battingmaestro had sent him a congratulatory message for his match-winninginnings yesterday.”Sachin has sent a message asking me to ‘keep it up’,” a beamingShewag said.Shewag, who opened the Indian innings with captain Sourav Ganguly inthe absence of Tendulkar, smashed a 69-ball 100, to guide India to acomprehensive seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the last leaguematch of triangular one-day series for a place in Sunday’s finalagainst Sri Lanka.The innings drew comparisons with Tendulkar for the sheer contemptShewag showed for the bowling while blasting 19 fours and a six, allof which were brilliant shots.The effort however was not enough to earn Shewag a place in the 16-member squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka announcedyesterday. “I have to perform better to get into the Test side,” wasall Shewag had to say about his exclusion.A middle-order batsman, Shewag said he was comfortable opening theinnings too. “I will bat in any position that the team wants me to,”he said.Shewag’s maiden century was the seventh fastest in limited overscricket. However, he said he was not going for the records and was noteven aware of Mohammad Azharuddin’s 62-ball hundred which is thefastest by any Indian. “I just kept playing my shots,” he said.Yuvraj Singh, who produced a similar match-winning knock against SriLanka the day before, said playing one’s natural game was the key tosuccess in one-day matches.”We didn’t put any pressure on ourselves and just played our shots,”Yuvraj said. The left-handed all-rounder, who made a sensational debutagainst Australia in the ICC Knock-out tournament in Nairobi lastyear, has also been left out of the Test squad.Yuvraj said he was not disappointed with the decision and was workingon his bowling too to develop into a genuine all-rounder. He had agood outing in this tournament with the ball too and felt if he wasable to contribute handsomely with the bat and the ball while being anoutstanding fielder, the selectors could not ignore him for the Testsfor long.After winning three successive pressure games, a relieved Indian teamteam took a deserving break today, ahead of the final on Sunday.”From the way we have won the last three matches, I can say we hope towin,” team manager AN Mate said.A group of underpriveleged children from a charitable institution inRatmalana, a suburb of Colombo, visited the Indian team today.