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Australia have escaped lightly in their dealings with Indian opener Virender Sehwag so far this series, and captain Ricky Ponting is hoping that luck will hold as he tries to claim an unbeatable 4-2 lead at Guwahati.
While hardly the sort of bright idea that would be offered up in team meetings, much of any fielding captain’s plan against Sehwag is to simply hope that India’s batting hurricane will blow himself out before the bowlers are swept away.
In each of the five matches played on tour this has happened, reflected in scores of 13 (11 balls), 40 (31), 11 (25), 30 (19) and 38 (30).
But there is always the chance that Sehwag will uncoil an innings of equal brutality to that played by Sachin Tendulkar in Hyderabad.
“The way he plays he he gives you a chance, Doug (Bollinger) put him down at fine leg but we ended up taking a good catch to get rid of him,” said Ponting.
“He can be dangerous when the ball comes on. It might be different on a wicket like this that doesn’t come on as much, so we can’t afford to give him any width early on.
“We will try and keep things tight to him but has a knack of finding the gaps.”
The need to keep things tight on off or even middle stump to Sehwag contrasts with plans bowl wide of off stump to Tendulkar and force him to reach for the ball, a task accomplished brilliantly by Peter Siddle until his injury.
Ponting said he had to find bowlers capable of mixing their lines accordingly in Guwahati, and Ben Hilfenhaus is one bowler who will want to do better than his expensive returns (1-83 and 1-72) in two games.
“What Sidds did was bowl well to Sachin, bowled on or outside off stump and made him drive through the off side early on,” said Ponting.
“We have to find someone else to bowl similar stuff.”
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