Virender Sehwag blasted India's fastest ODI hundred as the visitors swept to a comprehensive win that secured their maiden one-day series triumph in New Zealand. Sehwag reached three-figures off 60 balls with a signature six and his awe-inspiring hitting overshadowed Gautam Gambhir's near run-a-ball half-century. Daniel Vettori and the rest of the New Zealand bowlers were powerless in the face of the onslaught and what had seemed a challenging target was chased down with ridiculous ease. Even the two stoppages due to rain couldn't stem the run-deluge with Sehwag completing his century as early as the 18th over.

Astonishingly, only five runs came behind square on the off side, generally Sehwag's favourite hitting area. But the batsman still displayed his range of strokes in one Iain O'Brien over, hitting four fours off five balls: a powerful pull to midwicket, a drive that nearly took the bowler's head off, a whip off his pads and a pull-drive over mid-on to a short delivery.

In an innings filled with scintillating strokeplay, Sehwag was at his most murderous when play resumed following a rain break at the 10-over mark. With intermittent showers holding up play at regular intervals, Sehwag decided to make sure there was an early finish - in a five-over period, starting from the 12th over, he moved from 52 to 92. The high backlift showed his intentions as he set about dismantling O'Brien, Ewen Thompson and Jacob Oram. Only Daniel Vettori's intelligent variations of pace managed to draw a measure of respect from Sehwag.

Spare a thought for the debutant Thompson, who sends down gentle medium-pacers of the sort New Zealand so favoured in the 90s. After more than eight years of toil on the domestic scene, he was rewarded with a place on the national team, only to come up against a rampaging Sehwag on a small ground and a benign track with field restrictions in place. His four overs were taken for 42 runs, Sehwag's mighty hit into the scoreboard behind midwicket being the pick of the strokes against him.

* Virender Sehwag's unbeaten 125 is his third ODI hundred in New Zealand, where he averages more than in any country in which he has played more than one match. In 11 games there he has hit three hundreds, for an average of 55.80 and a strike rate of 100.90. He is the only Indian to score more than one ODI century in New Zealand.

* In his last 21 ODIs, Sehwag has scored 1240 runs at an average of 62 and a strike rate of 131.49.

* In 24 innings, Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have added 1380 runs at an average of 60 and run-rate of 6.61 per over. Among Indian opening pairs, who have scored at least 750 runs, this pair has the highest average and strike rate.

* Sehwag and Gambhir added 201 at a rate of 8.55 runs per over, which is the second-fastest double-century partnership in ODIs. Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga added 286 against England in 2006 at a rate of 8.98 runs per over.

* Ewen Thompson's economy rate of 10.50 is among the most expensive by a debutant. Among those who bowled at least four overs on debut, only four have a worse economy rate.

* It's only the third instance of a team scoring 200 or more while batting second in an ODI and winning without losing a wicket.

There was some respite for the bowlers when they bowled at Gambhir, who played the straight man to Sehwag, just nudging the ball around to pick up the singles. There weren't too many big hits, one of the standout shots of his innings being a deft leg-glance off Oram.

The Gambhir-Sehwag show was reminiscent of the frenetic hitting from Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder in the previous ODI at Hamiltion. The New Zealand pair put on a century stand this time around as well after Vettori chose to bat on a pitch offering some early assistance to the bowlers, but it was a less frenzied affair. It was the perfect base for New Zealand, but with Ross Taylor and Oram failing to fire again, India were able to scrap their way back into the game. Peter McGlashan, who made an inventive half-century, and Grant Elliott were unfazed by a couple of rain breaks and cobbled together 95 runs off the last 10 overs.

Ryder did much of the early scoring, but had a torrid time against the new-ball bowlers. Praveen Kumar's away-swingers had him fishing outside offstump and he also struggled to cope with Zaheer Khan's indippers.

At the other end, McCullum made a serene start; content to leave anything outside off, and always on the lookout for the tip-and-run single. At one stage, he had 3 off 20 deliveries. However once he got his eye in, he picked up the pace and the doddering run-rate rose towards a respectable six per over.

India's part-time spinners were brought on to stem the runs and both Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan did their job. Yuvraj was unlucky not to have dismissed McCullum - Mahendra Singh Dhoni botching a simple stumping chance - but got rid of Ryder; a slog-sweep swirling to Suresh Raina at square leg.

Taylor gifted his wicket soon after and with Martin Guptill not finding any fluency, it was left to McCullum to push the tempo. The Indian fast bowlers took some important wickets, including that of McCullum, during the batting Powerplay (from the 34th over) to leave New Zealand struggling at 185 for 5 after 38 overs.

It was left to McGlashan and Elliott to rectify the damage. McGlashan showed off his repertoire of sweeps - orthodox, paddle, and reverse - even against the quicks to keep the runs flowing while Elliott adopted a more orthodox approach. Fifty-one runs came off the final four overs after the second rain break to help set a target that was expected to test India's batting might. However, Sehwag and Gambhir barely broke into a sweat when they came into bat.

Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave B F SR 100 50 0 4s 6s

1999-2009 205 200 8 6592 130 34.33 6472 101.85 11 35 11 902 107

sehwag batting and bowling

Full name Virender Sehwag
Born October 20, 1978, Delhi
Current age 30 years 153 days
Major teams India, Asia XI, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils,ICC World XI, India Blue,Leicestershire, Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Batting and fielding averages
	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	67	115	4	5641	319	50.81	7209	78.24	15	18	798	64	53	0
ODIs	205	200	8	6592	130	34.33	6472	101.85	11	35	902	107	79	0
T20Is	12	11	0	223	68	20.27	154	144.80	0	1	24	10	1	0
First-class	129	214	8	10118	319	49.11			29	36			112	0
List A	275	265	13	8545	130	33.90			12	52			103	0
Twenty20	36	35	3	831	94*	25.96	518	160.42	0	5	95	36	5	0

Bowling averages
	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	67	63	2341	1167	29	5/104	5/118	40.24	2.99	80.7	0	1	0
ODIs	205	129	4015	3531	87	3/25	3/25	40.58	5.27	46.1	0	0	0
T20Is	12	1	6	20	0	-	-	-	20.00	-	0	0	0
First-class	129		6972	3600	93	5/104		38.70	3.09	74.9		1	0
List A	275		5620	4824	133	4/17	4/17	36.27	5.15	42.2	2	0	0
Twenty20	36	16	252	345	16	3/14	3/14	21.56	8.21	15.7	0	0	0

Virender Sehwag is a primal talent whose rough edges make him all the more appealing. By the time he had scored his first centuries in one-day cricket (off 70 balls, against New Zealand) and Test cricket (on debut, against South Africa, from 68 for 4), he was already eliciting comparisons with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. It is half true. Like Tendulkar, he is short and square with curly hair, plays the straight drive, backfoot punch and whip off the hips identically, but leaves Tendulkar in the shade when it comes to audacity.

Asked to open the innings in Tests on the tour of England in 2002, Sehwag proved an instant hit, cracking an 80 and a 100 in the first two matches. Regularly thereafter, he kept conjuring pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as India's first 300 (which he bought up, characteristically, with a six), at Multan against Pakistan in early 2004.

Sehwag bowls effective, loopy offspin, and is a reliable catcher in the slips. He also once almost split the cricket world: when he was banned for a match by the ICC referee Mike Denness on grounds of excessive appealing, the Indian board wasn't prepared to listen, and even played an unofficial Test with South Africa to prove a point. When a compromise was finally reached, Sehwag was back to his merry ways.

Though he continued to dominate in the Test arena, Sehwag's one-day form dipped alarmingly - after January 2004, he went through a period of 60 matches where he averaged under 29. Despite his fitness levels dropping and his one-day spot being under threat - he was dropped from the side for the home series against West Indies in early 2007 - Sehwag continued to sparkle in Tests, as shown by his magnificent 254 at Lahore. In June, he came excruciatingly close to scoring a century before lunch in the first day against West Indies in St Lucia, a feat never accomplished before by an Indian batsman.

After a string of poor scores, Sehwag was dropped from India's Test squad to Bangladesh in 2007, and was not considered for either the Test or ODI sides to England. He was a surprise pick for the Test team to tour Australia after not being named in the initial list of probables.

Sehwag had to wait for two matches before he made a strong coVirender Sehwag is a primal talent whose rough edges make him all the more appealing. By the time he had scored his first centuries in one-day cricket (off 70 balls, against New Zealand) and Test cricket (on debut, against South Africa, from 68 for 4), he was already eliciting comparisons with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. It is half true. Like Tendulkar, he is short and square with curly hair, plays the straight drive, backfoot punch and whip off the hips identically, but leaves Tendulkar in the shade when it comes to audacity.

Asked to open the innings in Tests on the tour of England in 2002, Sehwag proved an instant hit, cracking an 80 and a 100 in the first two matches. Regularly thereafter, he kept conjuring pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as India's first 300 (which he bought up, characteristically, with a six), at Multan against Pakistan in early 2004.

Sehwag bowls effective, loopy offspin, and is a reliable catcher in the slips. He also once almost split the cricket world: when he was banned for a match by the ICC referee Mike Denness on grounds of excessive appealing, the Indian board wasn't prepared to listen, and even played an unofficial Test with South Africa to prove a point. When a compromise was finally reached, Sehwag was back to his merry ways.

Though he continued to dominate in the Test arena, Sehwag's one-day form dipped alarmingly - after January 2004, he went through a period of 60 matches where he averaged under 29. Despite his fitness levels dropping and his one-day spot being under threat - he was dropped from the side for the home series against West Indies in early 2007 - Sehwag continued to sparkle in Tests, as shown by his magnificent 254 at Lahore. In June, he came excruciatingly close to scoring a century before lunch in the first day against West Indies in St Lucia, a feat never accomplished before by an Indian batsman.

After a string of poor scores, Sehwag was dropped from India's Test squad to Bangladesh in 2007, and was not considered for either the Test or ODI sides to England. He was a surprise pick for the Test team to tour Australia after not being named in the initial list of probables.

Sehwag had to wait for two matches before he made a strong comeback in the Perth Test, where he gave the innings' momentum with knocks of 29 and 43, and took two wickets with his offspin in Australia's second innings, to help India claim one of their greatest wins. He followed it up with scores of 63 and an imperious 151 - his first century in the team's second innings - to help India draw the Test in Adelaide. Then, in the first Test against South Africa in Chennai, he made an even more emphatic statement, rattling off the quickest triple-century in Test cricket, off just 278 balls. He eventually made 319 - the highest score by an Indian - and in the process became only the third batsman, after Don Bradman and Brian Lara, to pass 300 twice in Tests. In his next Test series against Sri Lanka in 2008, Sehwag thrived while the Indian middle-order struggled against the mystery spin of Ajantha Mendis. His double-hundred and half-century were instrumental in India winning the Galle Test.meback in the Perth Test, where he gave the innings' momentum with knocks of 29 and 43, and took two wickets with his offspin in Australia's second innings, to help India claim one of their greatest wins. He followed it up with scores of 63 and an imperious 151 - his first century in the team's second innings - to help India draw the Test in Adelaide. Then, in the first Test against South Africa in Chennai, he made an even more emphatic statement, rattling off the quickest triple-century in Test cricket, off just 278 balls. He eventually made 319 - the highest score by an Indian - and in the process became only the third batsman, after Don Bradman and Brian Lara, to pass 300 twice in Tests. In his next Test series against Sri Lanka in 2008, Sehwag thrived while the Indian middle-order struggled against the mystery spin of Ajantha Mendis. His double-hundred and half-century were instrumental in India winning the Galle Test.