Virender Sehwag continued toying with the bowling, and with help from the rest of the top order, he took India into a dominant position in the series-decider. His first involvement in the play today was catching Tim Southee, new Zealand's last wicket, whereupon he rushed to pad up for his innings.
Sehwag was in the same rush with the bat, but he was helped by the opposition too. New Zealand bowled to Sehwag the reputation, not Sehwag the batsman, and paid the price. Chris Martin hit him on the finger with a short ball first up, but overdid the short bit on a sluggish surface. Sehwag pulled and upper-cut with ease, scoring 39 off the 23 deliveries bowled short at him. On one occasion, Martin did manage to get him to fend uppishly, but there was neither short leg nor leg gully.
Martin had taken a quick five-for in Ahmedabad with traditional swing bowling, but hardly pitched anything up to Sehwag here. That hit on the fingers only encouraged him to keep bowling short. In Martin's second over, Sehwag pulled him for boundaries twice in front of long leg. It didn't help that when Martin pitched up later he was driven square for four.
Sehwag upper-cut Martin with time to spare. The pitch was so slow that Sehwag once swayed out of the line of a short delivery and then nonchalantly, as an afterthought, sliced it over gully. He was waiting to tuck into the full ones, whipping the next length ball off the pads.
Sehwag welcomed Daniel Vettori with a six over long-on - a mere flick that went the distance - and then late-cut him for four delightfully. He then had lunch and came back looking to feast on the bowling, taking 17 off the first two overs after the interval.
By the time the slowness of a Vettori delivery cost Sehwag his century, he had added 100 or more with Gambhir for the ninth time.