South Africa 540 India 468/1
breathtaking triple-century from Virender Sehwag, by far the fastest in terms of balls faced (278), was the centrepiece as India utterly dominated proceedings on the third day at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Sehwag scored 257 runs in the day, finishing it on 309, the same score he made at Multan back in 2004. The fusillade of strokes produced 108 runs between lunch and tea, and he shared in two double-hundred stands for the first two wickets, another record.
After Wasim Jaffer had contributed 73 to an opening stand of 213, Rahul Dravid turned the strike over cleverly as the bowling was ground into the Chennai dust. By stumps, the partnership was worth 255, and Sehwag's heroics had opened up the possibility of a result on the final day. Though South Africa finished five overs short of the 90 that they were supposed to bowl in the day, India still managed a staggering 386 runs.
The five frontline bowlers toiled away with no reward on an unforgiving pitch and by stumps a couple of them were looking a little shell-shocked and dispirited. Sehwag took just 78 balls for his second hundred, and 84 for the third, and by then any illusion of a contest between bat and ball had long since been shattered.
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