He Was The Culprit! Virender Sehwag Blames Rajasthan Royals Coach For Suraj Randiv's No-Ball That Cost Him A 100

Virender Sehwag missed out on scoring a century against Sri Lanka in 2010 after a deliberate no-ball by Suraj Randiv. With just one run needed to win the game, Virender Sehwag decided to go big and he smashed Suraj for a six. But his hit went in vain as Suraj bowled a no-ball. The one extra run was added to Sehwag's tally and he remained unbeaten on 99.

Back then, Sehwag had said that Suraj's no-ball was deliberate and was done to prevent the batsman from scoring a century. "Yes, it was done deliberately. Because (of the size of the no-ball) ... that much from the crease. Till now in Test matches, he hasn't bowled a no-ball [Randiv bowled two at the P Sara Oval], he hasn't bowled no-balls in one-day cricket, on 99 only why did he bowl a no-ball? And not a small no-ball, not a small margin, from one foot ahead," Sehwag had said then.

14 years after the controversy, Sehwag has revealed who the real culprit was. Speaking on the Club Prairie Podcast, the former India opener said that Kumar Sangakkara was the real culprit behind it.

"He was not the culprit.. culprit was that you know who was keeping behind the wickets. (Kumar) Sangakkara! Sangakka was constantly telling him that - I couldn't understand Sinhalese- but later, (Tilakaratne) Dilshan became my teammate in IPL and he told me that story. It's ok. doesn't matter if you score 99 or 100, what you want is for your team should win that match and that what happened in that game," Sehwag revealed.

Chasing a target of 171, India chased down the target in 34.3 overs. Sri Lanka went on to win that tri-series. New Zealand was the third team in the tri-series. The home team successfully defended a target of 300 and defeated India in the final.

Talking of Sehwag, he finished his ODI career with 8273 runs in 251 matches. He scored 15 centuries in his career. He was denied one century by SL. Sehwag made his ODI debut in 1999 and played his last game in 2013.

The former India vice-captain was part of the 2003, 2007 and 2011 World Cup-winning teams. Sehwag missed out on a spot in the 2013 Champions Trophy. He retired from international cricket in 2015.

Sehwag joined Punjab Kings after he retired and coached them till 2017. He now works as a commentator and shares his insights regularly.