At the press conference yesterday afternoon, Nasser Hussain had spoken of the dark week that followed India's remarkable run chase in the NatWest Series final at Lord's three months ago. When India started their quest for 270 this evening, with the skies over Khetterama a vivid orange - the colour of hellfire, some might say - Hussain couldn't have imagined the 135 minutes of inky blackness that would envelop him and his side as Hurricane Sehwag smashed everything to smithereens. It was just the sort of innings India needed after the bowlers had surrendered the initiative in mid-innings. Ian Blackwell's strokeplay was exceptional for someone playing only his second one-day international, but he was given a leg up, and more, by some awful Indian bowling.

Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra bowled too many knee-high full-tosses at the death, almost obliterating the memories of two excellent opening spells. Anil Kumble was uncharacteristically charitable, straying down the leg side too often, while Sourav Ganguly alone knows what he was doing bowling the 15th over.

India were discipline personified in the first ten overs, but by innings' end they resembled Dad's Army, with the bowling and fielding all over the place. Rahul Dravid had a match to forget behind the stumps, and too many of the throws at the wicket missed by embarrassing margins. If the likes of South Africa and Australia are to be overcome, India will have to be sharper in the field.

The omens were against India when they walked out to bat. In 55 previous matches at the Premadasa Stadium, including 40 under lights, no team had chased more than 243 (India against Sri Lanka in the Nidihas Cup, 1997-98) successfully. As it turned out, the way Sehwag warmed to the task, they could have overhauled considerably more. It took him a couple of overs to lock his sights onto the target, but once he did, England were blown off their feet.

A couple of searing straight-drives early on set the tone, though nothing could quite compare to the ferocious uppercut that sent an Andy Caddick delivery a long way over the rope at third man. He struck the ball so crisply and timed it so well that even unorthodox shots like the fetch from outside off stump through midwicket acquired the sheen of beauty.

Sportsmen down the ages have spoken of feeling unstoppable when they are in the zone. Sehwag had his first experience of that elevated plane a year ago, when he smashed 100 in 68 balls against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club a few miles from here. His batting today was just as authoritative and breathtaking to watch - Shahid Afridi with a brain, according to one wag.

Ganguly played his part too with a run-a-ball hundred, though VVS Laxman - who took a magnificent catch to dismiss Marcus Trescothick and start England's slide - certainly won't be buying him dinner tonight. Ganguly's innings started with a splutter and a few edges, but once he had worked out the pace of the pitch, the strokes started to flow. However that hook, which he insists on playing, remains one of the ugliest shots in contemporary cricket. But by the end it was so easy that he even had time to heave his bat down to short midwicket, taking the kitchen-sink cliché a mite too seriously.

In his newspaper column, Andy Caddick wrote: "If the batsmen put a score on the board, we have the bowlers to contain India." But the way Sehwag and Ganguly carted him and his mates around, 400 might not been enough. And for Hussain, it was an evening so bleak that Rimbaud's Season in Hell appears bright and cheerful in comparison. When India bat like this, only the forces of nature - or perhaps Australia - can stop them.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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