Rahul Dravid : The Wall

**VinodKumar's** · 25th November 2009, 10:50 AM

107.3

Herath to Dravid, SIX, Dravid proves just why that maiden was an aberration, gave it some air and he sensed a chance, danced down the track and launched him over long-on

**Google Adsense** · 25th November 2009 10:50 AM

**ajithfederer** · 25th November 2009, 10:59 AM

Dravid

Goes past Border.

**Dinesh84** · 25th November 2009, 11:05 AM

170 runs behind Panding..

**VinodKumar's** · 25th November 2009, 11:28 AM

Ravis shastry's comment

the only way you can imagine rahul dravid to get out

**podaskie** · 25th November 2009, 11:07 PM

Rahul Dravid laid the platform for the hosts with a serene, yet commanding 144 before Yuvraj Singh and VVS Laxman hit fluent fifties to lead India to a position of immense strength in Kanpur. India consolidated their position further by removing Tillakaratne Dilshan for a first-ball duck, and would also have been boosted by a probing spell from Harbhajan Singh and an encouraging one from Pragyan Ojha. Sri Lanka found a reason to smile due to Rangana Herath's five-for that terminated the Indian innings just after tea but it was a little too late for the visitors and the result of the game will now depend on how the pitch behaves.

Spare a thought for Dilshan, though. After toiling in the field for nearly two days, he was out first ball, getting a leading edge while attempting to flick an innocuous delivery outside leg stump from Zaheer Khan. Contrast it with the fortunes of Virender Sehwag who was dropped in the first over yesterday. It has been that kind of Test for Sri Lanka; not much has happened for them and till Herath introduced some drama into the game, nothing went right for them even today.

It was a classic grind-to-dust approach by the Indians led by Dravid, who, during the course of his 28th century went past Allan Border's run tally in Tests. The stand-out factor in Dravid's batting during this series has been his intent. He's been decisive, in defense and attack, and has been aggressively looking to score. Today he displayed the full repertoire: the charges down the track, the gorgeous inside-out cover drives on a stretched front foot, and the skillful punches off the back foot all were there but what stood out was a late cut against Mendis. The ball was skidding towards off stump, Dravid checked his forward press, waited for the ball to arrive before opening the blade and gliding it past backward point. There was no violence, just pure timing, and the stroke captured the spirit of his innings.

Dravid seemed impossible to dismiss, and when his end came, it was bizarre and perhaps, as that cricketing cliché goes, the only way he would have got out today. VVS Laxman hit one hard back at the bowler Rangana Herath, who spilled the catch, and the ball fell on the stumps with Dravid out of the crease at the non-striker's end.

Dravid left after leading India's charge and, in a reversal of their usual roles, was the dominant batsman in a 94-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar didn't hit a single boundary till his 87th delivery, when he pranced down the track to lift Mendis over long-off. A few balls later, however, he was dismissed trying to repeat the shot but couldn't clear mid-off. The credit must go to Mendis for dragging back the length this time around.

Following the two dismissals, the afternoon saw some classic yawn-inducing Test cricket: The pitch was benign, the sun was out, Sri Lanka were flattened and India were almost on auto-pilot with Laxman and Yuvraj cruising to half-centuries without breaking a sweat.

Yuvraj, who can be an iffy starter against quality spin, faced no problems as he settled in with imperious drives and a few sweep shots. His best was a late cut against Mendis: He had just lifted the previous delivery to long-on boundary and Mendis shortened the length of the next one and got it to skid away from the stumps. Yuvraj went back and played a late slice-cum-cut to the third-man boundary. It reflected his confidence against his previous nemesis and also said much about the state of the pitch and the match.

Laxman, too, looked set for a hundred until he sliced a flighted delivery from Herath straight to mid-off. Till then, he worked the angles well against the spinners, using his wrists to flick and drive the ball, and unfurled couple of caressed drives against the seamers.

Herath gave Sri Lanka some thing to cheer about by striking with his carrom balls. He removed a clueless MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, and Pragyan Ojha with finger-flicked deliveries that broke back in from outside off to hit the stumps or the pad and lured Zaheer to edge to slip.

Not only Herath but Muttiah Muralitharan too turned in an improved performance today. His flight was always there but today the loop and the dip gained potency. India would have been lifted by the couple of balls from Murali that spun and bounced appreciably in the first session and the amount of spin, though slow, Herath and Harbhajan found late in the day. Perhaps the pitch was showing some signs of life. Maybe it was just an oddity. Only time will tell.

http://www.cricinfo.com/indvsl2009/c...ry/436518.html

**podaskie** · 25th November 2009, 11:08 PM

Smart stats on dravid todays 100

This is the tenth instance of the top three batsmen in a line-up all getting hundreds in the same innings. It's the fifth instance in the current decade, and the third for India.

Rahul Dravid's 144 is his fourth-fastest innings of 100 or more runs. The 177 he scored in the previous Test in Ahmedabad is in third place. During the course of the innings

he also became the fourth-highest run-getter in Tests, going past Allan Border.

Dravid's strike rate was highest against Muttiah Muralitharan - in 45 balls from him, Dravid scored 33, including four fours, for a strike rate of 73.33. It was 67.92 against Rangana Herath and 59.09 against Ajantha Mendis.

**podaskie** · 28th November 2009, 01:12 PM

COVER STORY -SPORTSTAR MAGAZINE

He gets going when the going gets tough

Rahul Dravid has steel in his bones. He is one of those rare cricketers who actually relishes playing in adverse situations. They appear to stoke his combative instincts, writes S. Dinakar.

The subtle technical change he made reflected his analytical mind. Rahul Dravid had opened up his stance as he took on the English pacemen in Mohali. Ahead of the final Test against England last season, he had been bothered by deliveries leaving him. He was not certain about his off-stump.

But Dravid thought his way out of troubled times. A two-eyed stance enables a batsman to have a good look at deliveries on and outside the off-stump.

The in-coming ball is a threat to a batsman with such a stance but Dravid was getting his left foot across and covering the movement. The batsmen with two-eyed stance are well-placed for the pull or the flick but their driving, particularly the full-flowing ones, on the off-side can be limited. Perhaps, Dravid wanted to limit his shots on the off-side.

His game plan was simple: follow closely the ball on or outside the off-stump and take out the extravagant drives on the off-side.

This was a phase, ahead of India’s tour of New Zealand, when Dravid’s place in the Indian team was seemingly on the line. He was short of runs and needed to make a substantial contribution to the team and for himself. The conditions were overcast and the English pacemen had struck early on the first morning. And in walked Dravid.

His new stance was immediately obvious. And his technical switch worked. He was more certain of himself in the corridor, was fluent on the on-side and judiciously scored with firm pushes and checked drives on the off-side. The big drives through covers were out. He made a fighting 136 in difficult conditions. Dravid’s Test career was back on track.

Later in the season, when India visited New Zealand, Dravid, his confidence and rhythm back, reverted to his old side-on stance.

Dravid’s batsmanship is not only about temperament, determination or a one-dimensional technique. It’s a lot about a mind that can make tactical switches.

Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar at the nets. Apart from the ‘Little Master’ no other Indian batsman handles the combination of lateral movement and bounce better than Dravid.

Now, the runs are flowing from the 36-year-old’s blade. Dravid’s run of scores in the three Tests in New Zealand were 66 and 8 not out (in Hamilton), 83 and 62 (Napier) and 35 and 60 (Wellington).

When India resumed Test cricket after a gap of seven months, Dravid’s 177 in the first Test in Ahmedabad — constructed in difficult circumstances after India, with the new ball darting around, was reduced to 32 for four on the first morning — was typical of the man. The conditions for batting were demanding during the opening session of the first Test against Sri Lanka and Dravid was on the ball. He was water-tight around the off-stump, played close to the ball and put away the loose deliveries ruthlessly on either side of the wicket.

Dravid can blunt pace attacks with a rock-solid defence off either foot and when the frustrated fast bowler attempts something different, he can be severe with his response as he was with his positive hundred at Motera. Not for nothing is he amongst the world’s most successful No. 3 batsmen ever.

During his big hundred, Dravid reached the 11,000-run mark in Tests; he is only the fifth batsman to achieve the feat.

Dravid has 11038 runs in 135 Tests at 53.06 with 27 hundreds and 57 half-centuries. His away record — 6430 runs in 75 Tests at 56.90 with 16 hundreds — compares favourably with his home record — 4608 runs in 60 Tests at 48.50 with 11 centuries.

Apart from Sachin Tendulkar, no other Indian batsman handles the combination of lateral movement and bounce better than Dravid. And Dravid bats at No. 3 when the ball is likely to be new and hard, when the pacemen will run in and hustle the batsmen with bounce.

The batsman from Karnataka plays the short ball particularly well, never ducking too early, keeping his eyes on the ball to sway away from the line and playing on his toes with soft hands and a vertical blade, or pulling and hooking.

A glimpse at his records in major cricketing nations outside the sub-continent reveals his stature. Dravid has 972 runs in 12 Tests in Australia (average: 48.60), 915 in nine Tests in England (65.35), 766 in seven Tests in New Zealand (63.83), 1260 runs in 14 Tests in the West Indies (70.00). It is only in South Africa that he has been less consistent by his lofty standards — 504 runs in eight Tests at 33.60.

And he remains one of India’s foremost match-winners in crunch Tests, particularly on foreign soil. Dravid’s 148 under a cloud cover at Leeds in 2002 was a masterpiece. India went on to nail the Test.

His 233 and 72 not out in Adelaide guided India to a sensational victory over Australia in 2003. And Dravid’s inspiring 270 in the decider in Rawalpindi — the mentally tough Dravid has 550 runs in six Tests in Pakistan at 78.57 — was largely instrumental in India registering a historic Test series win across the border.

The studious right-hander’s efforts of 81 and 68 on a wicked Kingston track in 2006 provided India a memorable away Test series triumph in the West Indies.

Even when he was not in best of form, Dravid willed himself to a priceless innings of 93 in Perth in 2008. India ambushed the Aussies on a lively track. The man’s got steel in his bones. He is one of those rare cricketers who actually relishes playing in adverse situations. They appear to stoke his combative instincts. Crucially, he remains calm in the cauldron.

If his effort in Ahmedabad is any indication, there is a lot more cricket left in Dravid. Apart from playing the pacemen with composure and craft, he uses the depth of the crease wonderfully well against the spinners for those old-fashioned shots behind point. Dravid’s commitment continues to glitter. And he is back among big runs.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/storie...8500900400.htm