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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Next 14 months - Time to Cash In for Dravid!


Guys, here is Team India's Test Cricket Calendar over the next 14 months...


IND vs NZ - 3 Test Matches in IND (Nov '10)
IND vs SA - 3 Test Matches in SA (Dec '10 - Jan '11)
IND vs WI - 4 Test Matches in WI (Apr-May '11)
IND vs ENG - 4 Test Matches in ENG (Jul-Sep '11)
IND vs WI - 3 Test Matches in IND (Oct-Nov '11)
IND vs AUS - 4 Test Matches in AUS (Nov '11 - Jan '12)

So... 21 Tests (including the ongoing Ahmedabad Test)... 15 outta those games are "Away" games!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Virender Sehwag defends cautious Rahul Dravid

Virender Sehwag was quick to defend Rahul Dravid's slow approach to his innings yesterday. Dravid went on to register his 30th

Test century, but that was after consuming 100 deliveries for his initial 17 runs.

Dravid and Sehwag added a second-wicket stand of 237 runs as India amassed 329-3 at stumps. "He (Dravid) played his game and I played mine. We complement each other well.

He is such an experienced individual, and knows his own game better than anyone else. When we bat together, we never have to say too many things to each other. There's a great understanding," said Sehwag.

Rahul Dravid on his way to a hundred against NZ at Motera yesterday. PIC/AFP


The duo of Dravid and Sehwag has featured in several match-winning partnerships. In fact, Dravid has proved to be Sehwag's most successful partner -- the duo averages a hundred stand every five innings.

Sehwag in partnerships:

>> With Rahul Dravid: Innings: 50, Runs: 3038, Highest: 410, Average: 63.29, 100 partnerships: 10

>> With Gautam Gambhir Innings: 50, Runs: 2890, Highest: 233, Average: 60.20, 100 partnerships: 7

lWith Sachin Tendulkar
Innings: 19, Runs: 1230, Highest: 336, Average: 64.00, 100 partnerships: 3

>> With VVS Laxman Innings: 16, Runs: 493, Highest: 100, Average: 30, 100 partnerships: 1

Memorable Dravid-Sehwag partnerships:

410-run opening stand against Pakistan, Lahore, January 2006

268-run stand against South Africa, Chennai, March 2008

237-run stand against Sri Lanka, Mumbai, December 2009


http://www.mid-day.com/sports/2010/nov/051110-Virender-Sehwag-Rahul-Dravid-slow-approach.htm

Friday, November 5, 2010

Dravid and his legacy

To be fair, one has always been a Dravid fan. One has always realised that he was once upon a time the best batter in the country. But one always said that Dravid was getting old. And even before this innings one has had his/her own doubts. Did Rahul Dravid meritte his place in the side but one read this article which was only a few years old and one realised how forgotten a guy can be. In 2007 a guy wrote about him! A guy who a lot of us respected. Whom I respect!

Mukul Kesavan in his book 'Men in White', writes this.

Extravgantly Sound: Rahul Dravid

I look forward to some bilious critic attacking Rahul Dravid. It'll make for a change. The Press he getst so fawningly good; it would embarras a North Korean despot. I set out to write a hard-nosed, unillusioned assesement of an overrated batsman...and look what emerged.'

Rahul Dravid is a Paragon, the arch-gent of modern cricket. He's urbane, modest, resolute, dependable, well spoken and he even has a decnt line in self-deprecation. Asked in an interview, after a day;s playduring which he had completed a solid century, if he planned to go after Lara's new record, he instinctively came up with the graceful answer: 'For me to get 400,; he said, you would have to play a 6 day Test Match.'

But is he a great batsman? That's the big question, and there's a flottila of other, more specific que`stions that follow it in a close formation. Is he the greatest batsman ever to represent India? Does he have a claim to be the greatest batsman in the world today? If Rahul Dravid gets to an average of 60 (at 58.75 per innings, he;s within a double century of it) and retires at the big Six O, will the stattistical weight of this achievement allow him to lay claimn to being the greatest batsman of the last twenty-five years, greater than Tendulkar, Lara, Waugh, Gavaskar, Richards even?

Consistency at a very high level is an important part of being a great batsman; it' s why VVS Laxman will never be one. To play sublime innings every now and then isn't enough. On this score Dravid is the most dependable batsman India has ever produced, stattistically more reliable than Gavaskar, which is a staggering achievement.

I would arguew that Gavaskar faced the greater challenges: he opened the batting against better fast bowlers without a helmet, but a batsman can only play to the guhconditions he's given so that can't be held against Dravid. You could argue that Tendulkar in his pomp avergaed roughly what Dravid does today and he has made those runs at a greater rate. Morever to compare the figures of a completed career against one that's still a work in progress is misleading: averages taper off towards the end of a player's span and it is possible that two or three years from now Dravid's avergae will hover around the mid 50-s as Tendulkar's does, or, if he ekes his career out too long, the early 50's, which is where Gavaskar ended his wonderful career, Still, the fact that a pessmistic career forecast has Dravid declining to Gavaskar's statistical level, says something about the height at which he currently stands.

On nearly every count, Dravid's record is outstanding. He has by far the best record for an Indian batsman away from home, a crucial statistic for a team that's notoriously shaky at dealing with foreign conditions. He has played a string of big decisive innings tin the course of the last five years that have won Test matches for India abroad, most recently the two fifites he made in the summer of 2206 on an eccentric oitch in the West Indies.

But figures' arsn't everything. If they were, we wouldn't be asking the question we started with. Nobody asks it of Lara or Tendulkar anymore; we know they're great batsmen. So why -- despite the massive consistency of his record - do we not take Dravid's greatness for granted?

The simple answer is that Dravid has played all his cricket in the shadow of Tendulkar, regarded by many critics as the greatest batsman in the history of Indian cricket. By the time Dravid began playing Test cricket, Tendulkar was a Test star of seven year's standing. If the early nineties belonged to Lara, the second half of the decade was Tendulkar's. The seal on Tendulkar's pre-eminence was affixed by Bradman himself when he observed that Tendulkar's batsmanship resembled his own.Comig out from under Tendulkar's shadow was made even more dofficult by the fact that this grizzled veteran was younger than Dravid. It is natural for a young batsman to supercede the champion of the previous generation, as Tendulkar replaced Azharuddin. But prodigies like Tendulkar upset this sequence: a year older than the great Mumbaikar, it must have some times seemed to Dravid that he had been sentenced to second fiddle for life.

But through the last five years, Dravid by sheer weight of runs, has been the msot valuable batsman in the Indian side. That his peak has coincided with a relative decline in Tendulkar's performance has underlined his pre-eminence. Journalists and commentators elsewhere have acknolwedged with respect and admiration Dravid's achievement, but there has been no rush to celebrate the arrival of a new 'great'. This is partly because Dravid , having been around for ten years, isn't a new meteor in the night sky. It is the fate of the low-profile performers to be taken for granted.

Dravid is a great defensive batsman and the label 'great' is generally aaplied to batsmen who dominate the bowling, whose prefferd style, as with Lara and Tendulkar, is attack, not attrition. Attacking batsmen are sexier than defensive ones. The absolute truth of this can be demonstrated by a thought experiment. Sehwah opens the innings and falls early. Dravid walks in at his usual position at number three. Then the spectators notice long hair under the helmet and realise that Chappe;; has promoted Dhoni. The crowd erups, the stadium begins to fill, viewers everwhere out their lives on hold in anticipation of mayhem. And this is Dhoni, a cheerful Afridiesque brute, who makes no claim to higher batsmanship. Had Tendulkar in his pomp not walked in at his assignrd position in the batting order, collective disappointment would have rustled through the arena. Not so with Dravid. Dravif will never make your pulse race; acknowledging the greatness of those who do, lke Viv Richards or Tendulkar, come more easily, more naturally.

But this can't be the whole explnation. SMG played most of his innings in defensive mode and the Indian cricketing public wasted no time in hailing him as the greatest ever. This has something to do with his record-breaking series where he scored 776 runs in four Tests with thre centuries and two half centuries. In the greatness stakes, getting off to an early start helps (as with Tendulkar) as does and explosive one (as with Gavaskar). The fact that SMG was an opening batsman facing down fast bowlers which is dramatic and exciting in itslef. Also, Gavsakar generally closed out his centuries, unlike Dravid who through the st half of his career had the frustrating habit of getting himself out in the eighties and nineties. But even allowing for these differences, it's curious that we admire Dravid where once we stood in awe of Gavaskar.

I think the reason for this why Dravid is only just beginning to be given his due as a great batsman , has to do with his style of batsmanship. Spectators and cricket writers reserve their highest praise for batsTmanship that seems effortless. The oohs that follow Tendulkar's accentuated straight drive, the high elbow one, minus follow through, are our tributes to magic. The timing! The genius!

Dravid's batting style is the opposite of effortless. It's elaborate, flourishing and effortful and despite all that the Tendulkar or Sehwag. You seldom applaud a Dravid strokenfor it's power or timing. Energetic hook shotsndribble over the boundary line. Drives are hit hard into the ground and nothing is ever hit on the up. Every shot is preceded by a high flourishing backlift unlike Lara, whose backlift ends in high-risk shot maeratking, Dravid's arabesque, more oftern single. And the man-in-a-bunker- effect is exaggerated by Dravid's stance: low, dogged, sweat running off in rivulets.

Dravid doesn't fit the categories invented by a Coarse Cricket Writing to docket batsmen. Here a sound technique always implies a 'compact defence'. Well Dravid's defence isn't cvompact. It's extravagant. His wrists twirl, his bat loops before the ball is disciplined into the ground. Dravid is a great batsman who can do everything. Well Dravid's defence isn't compact; it's extravagant. His wrists twirl, his bat loops before the ball is disciplined in to the ground. Dravid is a great batter; he hooks he pulls, cuts, sweeps, flicks and drives, but his entirte technique is centred on the need to make sure that the ball hits the ground first.

If orthodoxy is shorthand for the coaching manuall or the prescriptions of the MCC, Dravid is the opposite of orthodox. Orthodox bntsmanship His methods aren't orthodox. It is important to say this if only because both critics and admirers describe him to as an orthodox batsman. For example Sambit Bal, paying tribute after Dravid had scored a series winning270 agst Pak in 2004 rote: Dravid's batsmanship has often been taken for granted because its so firmly rooted in orthodoxy,because it is utterly incomprehensible, and so utterly lacking in mysique'.

Dravid's defensive technique, on the other hand, is extravagant.. The bat describes a little scimitar before straightening. When he derives through extra cover


http://community.dreamcricket.com/community/blogs/not_cricket/archive/2010/11/04/dravid-and-his-legacy.aspx

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The phases of Rahul Dravid


RAHUL DRAVID is a Fighter who doesnt give up!
For a period of about 2 years from December 2006 to November 2008, one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era had statistics that read thus:

Matches - 25, Innings - 47, Runs - 1317, Average - 30.63 with two centuries and seven fifties.

It was not the most pleasant time to be walking in the shoes of Rahul Dravid. A man who - up until mid-December 2006 - had a majestic career average of 58.75, had scored over 9000 runs and crossed 50 every 2.5 visits to the crease. He was suddenly transformed into a scratchy, stumbling has-been, who couldn't seem to middle the ball even if he was handed a gift-wrapped half-volley that was sliding down leg.

He fought back - he had to. Rahul Dravid may not look like the archetypal warrior, but it is inscribed in his genetic code that he will not give up a fight. Weak people give up easily when confronted with steep obstacles, strong people do not give up easily. Rahul Dravid does not give up, period.

When he came in today, he started with a boundary off the second ball he faced. And then the battle started. At one end Virender Sehwag was batting at a run-a-ball, at the other Dravid was struggling to score at a run-an-over. After that second-ball boundary, Dravid scored 13 painstaking runs off the next 102 balls he faced - a rate of 0.76 runs per over. Batting on 17 not out off 104 balls, Dravid had done the initial hard work, and then as has happened in the past, he found his groove. The shots that had gone to fielders found the gaps, the deliveries that had been watched or defended started finding the middle of the bat. He wrested back the control he had given to the New Zealand bowlers in the first half of his innings in style: 87 runs came off the next 123 deliveries he faced.

It captured the greatness of the man. There are not too many people in world cricket who would be prepared to grind out a period when runs are hard to come by with the confidence that when they did come, they would make up for the grinding.

The innings was almost a microcosm of Dravid's career as a whole in the way it was neatly broken into distinct phases. From the time he made his debut in 1996 to his battling century today, Dravid's career can be broken down into phases that reflect the extended highs and occasional lows of a remarkable career.

Before he played this innings, Dravid's career graph read thus:

Time SpanTestsInnings Not OutsRunsAverage100s50s
June 1996 Debut to March 199929484239554.43516
October 1999 to March 2000816042626.6310
November 2000 to December 20066711218622866.261730
December 2006 to November 200825474131730.6327
December 2008 to January 201010172102968.6045
January 2010 to October 201059120725.8801
Overall144249291160252.742959


His entry into Test cricket was marked by his immaculate technique and unflappable concentration that led to a natural accumulation of runs all over the world - in places as diverse as England, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies, Dravid scored runs by the bucketful. There followed a brief slump, with India's tour to Australia in 2000 being particularly tough for Dravid. Immediately after that South Africa came to India and beat the home side before cricket's first full-blown match-fixing scandal hit the game in the solar plexus.

The long break after that did wonders for Dravid, and when India next played, he was the finished article. There followed 6 years of batting mastery when he assumed the mantle of India's leading batsman while Sachin Tendulkar struggled with his own bout of bad form and injuries. After that came the first major slide. It started with India's tour of South Africa in late 2006 and continued till Australia toured India in late 2008. The series that is best remembered as the last one of Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble saw Dravid sink the lowest he had as a batsman. Not only did he not score runs, he never looked like scoring any runs.

From that low, there were only two options - walk away into the dying sunset like his mates Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly had done, or rise from the ashes. In the mind of a fighter though, the first option wouldn't have been a legit one, so rise from the ashes he did. From late 2008 and through 2009, the Dravid of old re-emerged, and it looked like he had put his bad patch behind him. However, he was felled by a Shahadat Hossain bouncer in Bangladesh in January this year, and after that he didn't seem the same batsman. In the series against Sri Lanka and Australia, he struggled. But as has been the pattern after bad series against Australia, Dravid has bounced back yet again.

Going over the break-up of his career stats, it is also apparent that there is a stark difference in the 'centuries' column during his periods of slump and his highs. Whether this innings marks the start of Dravid leaving behind his slump or is merely a blip, remains to be seen. However, if history is a pointer, it is encouraging to note that is has come after a not-so-stellar series against Australia and he has reached three figures.

I 'Like' whatever has been posted on this Wall

From the days she managed to shower the enigmatic Avatar with 108 distinct names, India has patented an ingenious manner to bestow monikers. Sobriquets and epithets that somehow emerge in public consciousness, grow in popularity and then uniquely identify the more famous children of the nation – specifically that characteristic of the hero that captures the mass. Most often, these nicknames have uncertain origin but overwhelming consensus, to the degree that birth certificates and telephone directories aside, the popular title becomes more definite as identifier than the original christening.

Mahatma and Bapu both evoke images of the father of the nation – irrespective of whether one swears by unbendable Gandhian principles or belongs to the neo-urban generation of Bapu bashers. Universal reverence enabled Bal Gangadhar Tilak to turn into Lokmanya, and leadership qualities at two extreme ends of the nation made two noble names transform into Sardar and Netaji.

The phenomenon is not limited to the field of freedom fighters. In literature, Rabindranath Tagore was presented with the mantle of kabiguru, and in spite of being much younger than the venerable heads of politburo in his state, only one left hander ended up as the true dada.

Among all these saluting sobriquets, one rises up distinctly different from others. 'The Wall' is a name that sits immovable on the best ever one down batsman to have ever played for the country. The word Dravidian has taken on a new meaning in the last decade and a half – moving away from the ancient origins of a civilisation as old as time, across the geographical expanse of the southern parts of India and now denotes the broad blade which has for years thwarted the most diabolic of deliveries. And 'The Wall' has taken flight from the psychedelic cover art of Pink Floyd audio cassettes and CDs to take guard on the cricket field as a safe citadel for the coveted wicket.

In keeping with the tradition of Indian epithets, the nick characterises what the country has come to identify with Rahul Dravid. Immovable, impregnable stolidity … unperturbed shield of courage, defending the nation from every invading foreign force and weaponry year after year after year. It is definitely the popular image of the man who has batted on and on for the last fourteen years.

Yet, I find it distinct from the other nicknames discussed above.
At the risk of shooting myself in the foot by firing off an elitist versus mass argument , I will still argue that the primary reason for the difference is that unlike the rest it is an English moniker.

The argument that this is because cricket is an English pastime, elitist among the Indian playing fields, is dated. Since 1983, it has transformed into an Indian game which by some quirk of fate was accidentally invented by the English. And in spite of globalisation and the internet infestation of the country, the mass appeal for the sport in the remotest corners of the country is unparalleled. The aam admi still has a great voice when it comes to popular icons. Tendulkar, with his universal appeal, is still lovingly called Tendya. Ganguly is not the Big Brother but dada. Sehwag is not a blitzkrieg or a double o seven, but goes by the regal and regional Najafgarh ka Nawab. Compared to these, The Wall is a substantial urban leap. English epithets are not unknown, but in order to capture popular imagination they have for ever been restricted to the striking and limited imageries found in 'Tiger' Pataudi or the Rawalpindi 'Express'. The sophistication and stretch of the nickname Wall has a lot to convey, not only about Rahul Dravid's skills at keeping his wicket intact, but also about the essential attractions of his game and the nature of his followers.

If Tendulkar is endowed with the allure of an epic novel that enthrals, edifies and educates, Laxman a brilliant collection of sonnets that are lyrical and lilting, Sehwag a masterpiece which reads like a fast paced thriller, Ganguly a popular novel filled in equal measures with pieces of beauty and unreadable pulp, Rahul Dravid is akin to an elegant exposition of mathematical arguments or grammatical structures, timeless in significance, enjoyable to few but the absolute connoisseurs of the subject.

His game is too perfect, too correct, too neat to have endless popular appeal. Based too much on technical precision than the heady natural talent that Indians have forever been used to worship. The elegant and academic beauty of a perfect forward defensive push, the logical extension of the same into an impeccable drive through the covers, the scientifically accurate moment of connection to send the ball between mid on and the bowler, the productive yet flash free square cut, even the traditional strokes of adrenaline enhancing adventure – the pull, hook and sweep – played with copybook correctness and minimum of risk … the masses are not swayed by such perfection.

After ten thousand runs in one day internationals, after a stupendous 92 off 63 balls a few weeks earlier, after only a handful of very recent failures, he was dropped from the limited overs side in a curious decision. However, there was no effigy of Dilip Vengsarkar going around in flames. No demonstrations were held across the streets of Bangalore. Petitions floated to re-include him in the team had to make do with a few signatures.

Contrast this with the reaction to the dropping of Sourav Ganguly in 2006, after the southpaw had averaged in the mid thirties for over a period of five years and fifty plus test matches, a comfortable twenty runs per innings behind his celebrated middle order companions. Indian masses love a flawed talent – whose vulnerability and emotions are almost palpable enough to touch. Resolute perfection, with a face as readable as the most seasoned poker player, is not something that equates with the popular image of a hero. The very same reason why subtlety in Bollywood movies is circumspect by its absence but for rare ventures of brilliance, mostly made for the intellectual elites and later a section of the multiplex crowd.

However, that is not to imply that Rahul Dravid's phenomenal achievements with the bat have not won him a fan following.

After he was dropped and was busy ignoring journalists to make a double hundred for Karnataka, Cricinfo was loaded with visitors numerous enough to become inaccessible to slower browsers – a rarity for domestic cricket. Well articulated and concisely argued articles in newspapers, magazines, web site and blogs spoke eloquently against what seemed to most to be the gravest of injustice. The responses were sophisticated, rational and – to use a dubious term for the country - parliamentary. Every time his name comes up in discussions, there are advocates of his greatness who voice their opinions with reason, but generally stay clear of foul mouthed abuse exchange so frequent in the internet message boards of our passionate country. Even in this series of blog posts, there have been numerous requests made to me to write about the Wall – and all of these requests are polite and measured … not really characteristics we identify with the common Indian fan who runs around wrapped in the tricolour, burns effigies and sits in busy traffic intersections to protest against some slight to his hero.

Dravid is appreciated by a distinct category of fans, that group of devotees who marvel at technical perfection, to whom concentration and application that goes behind a superbly negotiated late in-swinging delivery with the score reading 4 for one hold more value and merit than a hastily slogged six. There tends to be a marked social correlation between the admirers of the straight batted defensive stroke and the ones who would be rather seen dead than in the streets burning effigies. This is the same group who would actually appreciates the now famed urban sobriquet – The Wall.

But, even though The Wall is how the populace thinks of him, is it enough to characterise all the facets of the maestro's batting?

I beg to differ. Even to the most clamouring and irrational modern cricket 'fan', it is clear that Dravid has been the greatest match winning batsman in the recent times – till the advent of the rejuvenated Sachin Tendulkar. He averaged 102.84 while scoring over 2500 runs in the 21 matches won during the Sourav era. This is simply not possible with purely defensive technique. What we casually overlook while focusing on his impregnable defence is that he is perhaps the first Indian batsman to possess every stroke around the wicket with equal amount of risk eliminated perfection. The revenue more than speaks for his versatility in scoring all over the oval. At the same time, he has also scored some of the faster fifties in One Day Internationals. So, what gives the impression of one dimensional defensive technique?

The explanation is that while batting for the country the excessive element of determination and focus to hold on to his precious wicket makes him avoid the slightest of risk in his strokes, making him eschew adventurous endeavours that he is more than capable of undertaking. Except for the occasional square cut off the front foot, he does not show the slightest inclination towards unorthodoxy in test cricket.

In matches of lesser importance Рfirst class games for his state, domestic limited over showdowns РI have seen him clout the ball over the ropes with ̩lan, giving a freeflowing expression to his batsmanship that he seldom indulges in at the highest level. I remember his four sixes in a fourth innings Irani Trophy hundred when he and Laxman sealed a win against a fighting Mumbai. I remember him stepping out and clouting Sourasish Lahiri onto the remote tiers of the stands in a Challenger Trophy encounter. He is more than capable of attractive hitting and once in a while comes out with the full array of his strokeplay. He did once straight drive Alan Donald for six in a one day international in Durban, a most extraordinary and surprisingly unanalysed stroke. A straight batted pull in his third test match during an explosive forty against Australia still remain fondly remembered. But, ever since he was given the role of the number 3 in test matches, he put a severe price on his wicket, allowing the beauty of his batsmanship to shine through technical perfection and results.

That is not to say that he is selfish in his approach. One can find few examples of a batsman losing his wicket trying a reverse sweep when on 270. Few middle order maestros have taken up the challenge and opened the innings while captaining the side. But, with there seldom being an opening combination that got going on a regular basis before the Delhi duo of Sehwag and Gambhir, he gave the impression of being that Rock of Gibraltar at the top of the middle order that people will remember him as. That Great Wall of India.

People increasingly tend to notice chinks and crevices in the brickwork that presage winds of change blowing into the dressing room. However, something formed over years, brick by brick, takes a long while to be dismantled … and I believe when it is time, he will know it before anyone else and The Wall will depart without crumbling, with the same amount of dignity with which he has played the game and conducted himself in public eye.

Till then I can say with conviction that I 'like' everything that has been posted on this Wall for the last one and a half decades.




http://senantixtwentytwoyards.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-like-whatever-has-been-posted-on-this.html

Determined Dravid overcomes the pressure


Rahul Dravid overtook Don Bradman to reach his 30th Test century, India v New Zealand, 1st Test, Ahmedabad, 1st day, November 4, 2010
Rahul Dravid's 104 may not have been his most attractive, but was very significant © Associated Press


Teams: India

These are not easy times to be Rahul Dravid. In his previous innings, on home soil in Bangalore, he walked out to replace the man who many see as his eventual successor. Cheteshwar Pujara had batted with tremendous poise and fluency for 72 and the cheers for Dravid mingled with the applause for a future star. Murali Vijay, who made a hundred in the first innings of that game, had also shown himself to be someone capable of filling any breach in the top three.

Every time Dravid fails from here on, there will be clarion calls for youth. Even when he succeeds, there will be those who say that his presence at No.3 isn't beneficial for the long-term health of Indian cricket. In a country where those in their late 20s like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif are considered past it, what chance does a soon-to-be-38-year-old have?

This century, his 30th, won't feature in the highlights reels of his career. The opposition wasn't the most taxing and the pitch, though two-paced, was little more than benign. But for a man who has struggled since two wonderful stroke-filled hundreds against Sri Lanka at the end of last year, this was a defining innings in more ways than one.

In his previous Ahmedabad appearance, he had taken India from 32 for 4 to over 400 with a 177 that was as full of intent as any innings he had ever played. This was a very different knock. With Sehwag playing as is his wont, even on a pitch where the ball didn't come on as you'd expect on the opening day of a game, he was becalmed for long periods early on. He faced 105 balls for his first 17 runs, and was fortunate when Gareth Hopkins failed to hold on to a bottom edge off Jesse Ryder when he had just 28.

But in the hour before tea, something changed. The feet started to move more decisively, and the strokes that had previously found the inner ring started to streak away through the gaps. In a passage of play where India scored 69 runs, Dravid made 44 of them. By the time the bat was raised for the hundred that took him past the greatest No.3 of them all, Sir Donald Bradman, he had made 83 from just 111 deliveries. With Sehwag slowing down as a result of a slight jarring of the knee, it was just what India needed to keep the pressure on.

Dravid would be the first to admit that he isn't as prolific as he once was. But leaving aside the statistical anomaly that was Bradman, the law of diminishing returns has affected the greatest of No.3s. Being the pivot of the batting order comes with its own pressures, and unlike those who bat lower down the order, there's no hiding from the dangers of the new ball.

Viv Richards averaged 55.18 with 15 centuries after his first 60 Tests. In his next 61, he made nine more hundreds, but the average dipped to 50.23. Ricky Ponting has suffered similarly. When Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath brought the curtain down on a golden generation with a 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Sydney, Ponting was averaging 59.29 with 33 hundreds. In 38 games since, he has made six centuries, but the mean has dipped to 54.68.

In Dravid's case, he ended the tour of the Caribbean in 2006 with two masterful half-centuries at Sabina Park, on a spiteful pitch where even Brian Lara was made to look ordinary. At that stage, 104 Tests into his career, he averaged 58.75 with 23 hundreds. In 41 matches since then, he has made seven centuries and 13 other scores in excess of 50. But the average is 39.65, largely a result of the failure to play the monumental innings that were once his forte. Only once, at Motera last year, has he gone past 150.

Something about batting with Sehwag brings out the best in him though. In some ways, as bizarre as it may sound, they are birds of a feather. The tempos may be very different but both trust in the method that has brought them so many runs. Sehwag, who has now added 3038 runs with Dravid (average of 63.29) from 50 innings, said as much after the day's play. "Rahul takes his time when he is batting," he said. "He is batting in his own style and I bat the way I want to. It's easier. We never discuss stuff like you should score fast or slow. He bats the way he knows and I bat the way I know."

Even when batting as fluently as he did in Ahmedabad last year, Dravid has never forced the issue with unnecessary innovations or improvisation. In that sense, he and Jacques Kallis remain a last tenuous link to the old ways of Test-match batsmanship.

Another missed catch - again Hopkins, but this time off Jeetan Patel - gave him a reprieve on 92, and there was more than a hint of fatigue about the shot that cost him his wicket with the close of play in sight. The snipers may have been temporarily deprived of ammunition, but yet again the big innings had eluded him.

How much longer can he go on? South Africa lie in wait at the end of the year, the pace and swing of Dale Steyn and the height and hustle of Morne Morkel. More importantly, how do the selectors view Indian cricket's future? If Pujara and Vijay are considered ready, would a tour of the Caribbean, against a team that's been in disarray for years, be a good place to blood them? Will Dravid walk of his own volition?

In some cases, form hasn't always been the prime consideration for moving a player on. Steve Waugh, another with resolve hewn from granite, averaged 76.61 in a final year bookended by Sydney Tests. Yet, with Michael Clarke waiting in the wings, it was decided that he needed to move on. Waugh would have loved another crack at India in India, but it was Adam Gilchrist and Ponting that led Australia as the final frontier was finally surpassed less than a year later.

A second wind for Dravid?


Rahul Dravid overtook Don Bradman to reach his 30th Test century, India v New Zealand, 1st Test, Ahmedabad, 1st day, November 4, 2010
Has Dravid been too caught up in the mechanics of survival to flourish? © Associated Press


Watching his innings of two halves in Ahmedabad prompted the question: is Dravid too aware of his own mortality?

Harsha Bhogle

By playing with a bat Michael Hussey called "three metres wide", and doing so in his 38th year, Sachin Tendulkar doesn't only continue to give people a hard time, he gives hope to many others that if you stay around long enough, a second wind is possible. Of course it assumes that you will be picked in that period - some teams cull ruthlessly while others enforce temporary bans - and be fit enough to scour the horizon for that second coming.

I thought of that as I watched Rahul Dravid struggle his way through his first hundred balls in Ahmedabad. My mind, so full of admiration for a great cricketer, was willing him on, but younger, more irreverent, observers on my Twitter feed were calling for his head. Apart from a little purple patch in 2009, Dravid has been averaging in the thirties over three years (interestingly these numbers are very similar to those Tendulkar generated during his lean phase in the middle of this decade) and didn't always look like the great player he is.

Surely on a cruelly flat deck and against an attack that wasn't likely to scare a top team, he could have batted like the player we knew, or indeed like the player we saw after the shackles he had imposed on himself were broken and a century appeared. Or was it that Dravid was building bunkers around him, creating defences against every possible dismissal? Was he getting so caught up with survival that not getting out would seem a success?

A couple of days earlier I heard Sourav Ganguly say, on a news channel, that as a player moves past the mid-thirties he loses his confidence far more than he does his ability. And I wondered if that was the case with Dravid, surrounded as he is by young batsmen, who admire him but challenge him nonetheless. Was he so increasingly aware of his mortality, I wondered, that he was guarding himself against every possibility?

Sometimes players, like managers, can analyse in such detail that they end up thinking of weaknesses that may or may not exist. Batsmen can start preparing for every possible way in which they can get out. As patients get older, they worry about infections cropping up from just about anywhere, where in younger days they might have drunk water out of a tap at a railway station, or jumped out of a tree oblivious to injury. Batsmen can therefore start focusing too much on not getting out rather than on scoring runs.

Indeed, watching cricket in that phase you couldn't help thinking that one player, Virender Sehwag, was looking for an opportunity to score, while another, Dravid, was searching for safety. One seemed to enjoy being out in the middle, like a kid might on a rollercoaster, while the other was gritting his teeth like he was preparing for an assignment on the implications of Bernoulli's Principle. (And given that the passage of a ball through air tends to be governed by the work of the aforementioned gentleman, he probably wasn't too far away anyway!)

Having said that, Dravid could well counter the point saying that he has addressed every match the same way in the last 14 years, and has an extraordinary body of work to support his thesis; that on another day Sehwag might look flippant and the gravitas that Dravid exudes might be more reassuring; that being a man of erudition, a deep thinker and an analyst, has always worked for him.

As it turned out, a century duly arrived, one that took him past Bradman's 29 - once considered as unattainable as a four-minute mile was - at a strike rate better than that achieved over his career. The second half of his innings, in terms of balls faced, produced 80% of his runs. The certainty that Dravid exuded through a glittering career was back, the feet had started to glide, and the bat was searching for runs where it had been intent on guarding the wicket.

Did the confidence that Ganguly was talking about return? Did a voice tell him that putting money in a locker was not much good in a bull market? And will this century, and the accompanying confidence, lead to the second wind, the kind Tendulkar has shown?

I do not know. But what I do know is that beyond a point, the more you analyse, the more you budget for failure. Now that may be good for Obama's security entourage but not necessarily so for quality cricketers.


http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/485466.html

Me and Dravid did not discuss batting styles: Sehwag


Ahmedabad: Flamboyant opener Virender Sehwag on Thursday said he and Rahul Dravid did not discuss even once their different batting styles even as they struck contrasting centuries on the opening day of the first cricket Test against New Zealand here.

While Sehwag was his usual aggressive self, scoring a quick hundred, Dravid took time to get into groove and gradually improved his strike rate.

Sehwag’s 173 came off 199 balls while Dravid took 227 balls for his 104-run knock.

In the process, they shared a splendid 237-run stand for the second wicket, their 10th century-stand, and helped India reach a solid 329 for three at close.

Sehwag said they were talking to each other regularly but ‘how to get runs’ never became a topic.

“I play my way and he plays his way. He has his own style and I bat in my style. We were chatting a lot but not on how quickly he should score or I should. He knows how to get runs and he got them,” said Sehwag, who had put on a mammoth 410-run stand with Dravid at Lahore in Pakistan in 2006.


Sehwag said the hosts are looking to pile up a total in excess of 500 tomorrow to put New Zealand under pressure.

“We are looking at 500 or 550. If we can reach there we can put pressure on the New Zealand batsmen as the wicket is a slow and I think it will start to turn on the third or fourth day,” said Sehwag who slammed his 22nd Test ton, said.

Sehwag said he hurt his right knee when he fell down while running between the wickets in the morning and the pain became intense after tea.

“Till tea I was batting well but after tea there was pain in the knee and I could not concentrate,” said the Delhi dasher, who struck 24 fours and a six in his 199-ball essay.

Sehwag’s hundred was his sixth in just the last 13 Tests in just over a period of 12 months, during which he and Sachin Tendulkar have been the bulwarks of the Indian batting.

The Delhi dasher had come into the match with five 100-plus and one 200-plus scores.

Asked about the wicket, Sehwag said it was good to bat on in the morning before it got slower.

“The wicket is okay. It depends on the bowlers, how to use it. In the morning the ball came on to the bat and we scored over 120 runs. It’s becoming slow,” he said.

Sehwag said the Kiwis new-ball attack was a bit handicapped by the fact that Chris Martin, though experienced with over 50 Tests under his belt, was bowling for the first time in India while Hamish Bennett was making his debut.

“One bowler is not experienced in bowling on Indian wickets while the other is a debutant. Bennett is a good bowler and would learn from this experience. He has an awkward action which is a bit difficult to pick,” he said.

Asked about Tendulkar approaching a new landmark, his 50th Test ton, Sehwag said the champion batsman approaches every match as if it was his first.

“It’s important to treat every match the same way and that’s what he does. He always plays like it is his first Test, in a similar way,” he said.

PTI

Dravid surpassed Sir Don Bradman For Centuries



Dravid just surpassed the greatest cricketer's tally of 29 100s.

Congrats for well built innings..!

Well played Viru, as well..!


COMMENTARY ON THAT BALL :

Patel to Dravid, 2 runs, and he gets to the hundred with the cut! Nicely helped away past cover, and limps back for two. Looks up to the heavens, then acknowledges the reception from the dressing room. Second hundred since Ahmedabad last year, and his 30th overall. Goes past Bradman, and is level sixth with hayden now on that list.

Most centuries in tests

http://tinyurl.com/Test-centuries

Sehwag and Dravid torment New Zealand


India 329 for 3 (Sehwag 173, Dravid 104) v New Zealand
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Virender Sehwag launches one straight, India v New Zealand, 1st Test, Ahmedabad, 1st day, November 4, 2010
It was business as usual for Virender Sehwag © AFP


New Zealand were given an early glimpse of the difficult task ahead of them in India as the home team moved into a commanding position on the first day in Ahmedabad. Virender Sehwag sprinted to a century in just over a session while Rahul Dravid compiled an old-school Test hundred, starting off cautiously and opening up once set. Their contrasting efforts put India on course for a mammoth first-innings total, and left New Zealand demoralised.
India were thrilled at winning the toss on a track with little in it for either spinners or the quicks: MS Dhoni had a huge grin when he said, "Well, of course we want to bat," while Harbhajan Singh, watching from the boundary, threw his hands up in jubilation on hearing the news.
After that, it was a Sehwag treat for the sprinkling of fans who had turned up at Motera. In the third over, he jokingly signaled for a free-hit after Chris Martin overstepped. There aren't any in Tests, but that didn't stop Sehwag from carving the next delivery through covers for four to get his first runs. Two more off-side boundaries rounded off the over, and there was no slowing him down after that, despite several short deliveries to stop the drives.
Sehwag predominantly scored through the off side, cutting deliveries that were even fractionally wide, and skipping away from the stumps to play inside-out shots off the spinners. Despite going at a run-a-ball, there was none of the violence usually associated with that rate of scoring; he relied mostly on timing and placement as he peppered the off side for 18 boundaries.
India were 60 for 0 in the 12th over, the New Zealand attack was looking blunt, and Sehwag was enjoying himself, laughing after slipping while taking a single. Part-timer Jesse Ryder, though, got the final delivery of that over to move in a touch and had Gautam Gambhir inside-edging onto the stumps. It ended an innings where Gambhir had struggled for fluency as he searched for his form of 2009. He fed on leg-side offerings from debutant Hamish Bennett, who bowled with plenty of pace but didn't trouble the batsmen too much.

Smart Stats

  • During their 60-run stand for the opening wicket, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag became India's most prolific opening pair, going past the aggregate of Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan. Their batting average is third in the list of most successful opening pairs (minimum 3000 runs).
  • Sehwag made his 14th score of over 150 in Tests, bringing him level fourth with Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. Only Sachin Tendulkar (20), Brian Lara (19) and Don Bradman (18) are above him.
  • The double-century partnership between Dravid and Sehwag was the 15th time that Dravid was involved in a 200-plus stand and the 12th such occasion for Sehwag. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record among Indian batsmen having been involved in 18 such stands.
  • Dravid's century was his 30th in Tests, taking him past Don Bradman and level sixth with Matthew Hayden on the list of batsmen with most Test centuries.
  • Dravid's century was India's 400th in Tests and their 132nd century since Jan 1 2000.

Sehwag was unfazed by the loss of Gambhir, taking two fours an over off offspinner Jeetan Patel three times, and galloped to 82 with 15 minutes to go for lunch but couldn't become only the fifth batsman to make a century in the first session of a match.
Dravid, though, was struggling for runs: he was middling many deliveries but stroking them straight to the fielders. His recent form has been a bit of concern - just one half-century in his previous nine innings - and those worries remained as he scratched his way to 20 off 106 deliveries against a weak attack on a flat track. A couple of boundaries off Ryder midway through the session finally gave him some momentum after which he was more aggressive.
Sehwag had also toned down his aggression after lunch, and seemed to be struggling with his fitness; he rarely zipped through between the wickets, preferring to jog whenever possible and asked for a runner after tea. He was hardly bothered by the bowling till he was well past his fifth Test hundred of the year - a near run-out in the sixth over being the only major moment of concern.
Towards tea, though, he was tiring and offered a slew of opportunities to New Zealand: when on 144 he survived a close lbw call against Daniel Vettori after missing a reverse-sweep, a sharp caught-and-bowled chance in the next over and Bennett misjudged a catch at long-on in the final over before tea. The simplest opportunity came soon after the break when substitute Martin Guptill dropped a skier at midwicket.
As Sehwag slacked, Dravid took charge. The sumptuous cuts of old were back, especially against the spinners, and there were several types of on-drives for four as well. He was hit on the head by a Bennett bouncer, but two deliveries later he contemptuously pulled a short ball for four.
Sehwag was bowled by Vettori while lazily attempting an inside-out drive, but Dravid reached his 30th Test hundred soon after, moving past Don Bradman in the list of highest century-makers. He had taken only 64 deliveries for his second fifty; his first had come off 151. Though he was dismissed for 104 in familiar fashion - bottom-edging a cut - the 237-run stand with Sehwag had already put India in charge.
New Zealand's bowling was average, with the spinners not extracting much turn and the quick bowlers, Chris Martin and Bennett, rarely beating the bat on the slow track. The talk in the lead-up to the series had been about how New Zealand will be able to take 20 wickets in a Test against the Indian batting juggernaut, and that is a question their think-tank will be pondering over after the first day.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Dravid walks the extra mile

He stopped his cover drive with a frown, as two saree clad groundswomen approached the stroke's vicinity, dragging along with them a squeaky roller. The women stopped just short of him, pulling the burden back from where it came. Watching them recede, he moved back and across, and with eyes focused over his clasped wrists, he executed the text book defence. As he held the pose with grace, the electronic lawnmower swallowed stubborn tufts of grass with a chugging din inside the square, while loud painters splashed their drenched brushes on the smoothened side of the carpet-like lawn.

As the sun sunk below the smoggy Ahmedabad horizon, Rahul Dravid found serenity amidst the surrounding chaos, shadow practicing on the pitch with incredible poise and zeal.

There was no willow in grasp, but his full repertoire of strokes was on display. From the supple drop of his wrists to the crunching hoick over mid-wicket, Dravid toiled for the second time on Tuesday, long after the official net session was over. He was leaving no stone unturned to get it right at Motera: a venue where he has demolished several tangible oppositions before; including his next, New Zealand.

As he crept out of the restricted area to join his waiting team-mates in the parking lot, the frown had turned into a pursed lip smile. In Dravid's world of insulated emotions, it was the equivalent of hip roaring laughter. Despite the odds stacked against him, the reasons to celebrate were plenty. Both his forthcoming opponents and the Sardar Patel Stadium have been more than kind to Dravid in the past.

Even though the batsman is struggling with a lean patch (346 runs in this calendar year at 34.60) leading upto the first Test against New Zealand, one look at his numbers in this city will give even his sternest critics hope aplenty.

His career Test average of 52.73 gets amplified to 60.54 in six matches at the Motera, helped of course with a fifty, a century and a double ton against the Kiwis in 2003. His numbers against New Zealand both home and away are impeccable too, averaging 59.90, with four out of his 29 tons coming against the Black Caps. The combination of the two - against the Kiwis at the Motera - churns out a stunning 85 runs per innings from Dravid's blade.

Turning the tide?

As the cricketing cliché goes, all it takes is one innings to turn the tide, and nobody knows that better than the 37-year-old. It was on this very ground that Dravid embarrassed both his critics and the visiting Sri Lankan bowlers last year, when he scored 177 runs in a day to complete the rescue act, after India were 32/4. That innings had ensured that both his dry spell with the bat and hushed calls for him to be dropped had come to a rude end.

Come Thursday, Dravid will have to do it all over again. For India may have beaten the Aussies without any meaningful contributions from him last month and will probably do it again against the Kiwis, but if they are to stand a chance in South Africa over three Tests starting December, the team will require Dravid's expertise more than ever.

With the bigger picture in mind, Dravid will need Ahmedabad more than ever to turn the tide. And if the knock is anything like what he managed last year against the Lankans, it won't be long before he swaggers right back into national consciousness. The obstacles and distractions are plenty, but if Tuesday evening is anything to go by, Dravid is already ready for action, before even a single ball is bowled.


http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.indianexpress.com/dravid-walks-extra-mile-20101103/

Dravid's Form Check

RD's average has gone down by 5 since 2007..!!

Not only have Dravid and Ponting struggled when compared to the best in the world, they've also failed to keep pace with the best in their own teams. There used to be a time when Ponting was unquestionably the best batsman in Australia, but now that mantle has been taken over by Michael Clarke, while Simon Katich too has scored far more consistently than Ponting. It's not as if runs have completely eluded Ponting - among his six hundreds was a memorable 123 against India in Bangalore, his first century in the country, 101 and 99 in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in 2008, and 150 in the first Ashes Test in Cardiff - but those high scores have been offset by too many low ones.


For Dravid, the situation is worse.

In a line-up of heavyweight batsmen, his average is the poorest among the regular players; while three batsmen have averages of more than 60, Dravid's barely touches 40.

What's also been worrying is the spread of those runs: Dravid used to be India's best bet overseas, but four of his six hundreds during this period have come in India, and the other two were scored in Bangladesh. His one good series abroad was in New Zealand, but he failed to convert his half-centuries into something more substantial: he made four fifties in six innings, but none exceeded 83. Excluding his innings in Bangladesh, his overseas average during this period drops to 33.20, with no centuries in 33 innings. That doesn't augur well for a team who have a tour to South Africa coming up.

he drop in form over the last four years has meant that almost five runs have been lopped off the career averages of both players - Ponting's has dropped from nearly 60 to less than 55, while Dravid's has come down to less than 53 from a high of 57.58. For Ponting, what's noticeable is his poor conversion rate: during his prime he used to convert one out of two 50-plus scores into a hundred, but since 2007 that rate has fallen to one in nearly four (six out of 22). For Dravid, surprisingly, the ratio remains exactly the same before and during these four years.

--

For both batsmen, the tendency to get out early in the innings is more marked: Ponting and Dravid used to get out for less than 20 once every three innings, roughly, when they were in form; now that percentage has increased considerably. Of the 60 innings Dravid has played since 2007 (excluding unbeaten sub-20 innings), he has been dismissed for less than 20 on 27 occasions, which is a whopping 45%. Five of those 27 dismissals were in the four Tests when Australia toured India in 2008: of the seven times he batted in that series, only twice did he top 15.

---

And finally, here's a comparison of the performances of the two at No. 3, sorted by the score at which they've come in to bat. Again, the numbers don't flatter Dravid. Ponting has averaged more or less the same regardless of the score at which he has come in, but Dravid has clearly preferred situations when the openers have put together a substantial first-wicket partnership, which is another indication that his level has dropped - when he was at his peak, he relished situations that required him to repair the damage of an early setback.

Since 2007, Dravid has come in to bat 22 times when the openers have been separated with less than 20 on the board, and he has only scored two centuries - 136 against England in Mohali when the first wicket fell at 6, and 177 against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad, when the opening pair was separated at 14. On the other hand, he has failed to touch 20 on 10 of those 22 innings.

When the openers have added between 20 and 75, Dravid's average has increased to almost 41, but his conversion rate has been abysmal in these instances, with seven fifties and no hundred. And when the openers have laid a good platform, Dravid has helped himself to an average score of more than 52. In fact, all four of his hundreds have come when the openers have added more than 100 - two of those were against Bangladesh, while the other two followed double-century opening stands, in Kanpur and Ahmedabad.

For Ponting, the numbers are far more consistent, but then he has failed to take advantage of good starts. Clearly, over the next few months both batsmen need to raise their game. Given their past record, there's no reason to suggest they can't.

Stats :

Current Indian batsmen in Tests since Jan 2007

1) Gambhir 2116 @ 62.23 in 19 tests
2) Sehwag 2928 @ 61 in 28 tests
3) Tendulkar 3247 @ 60.12 in 35 tests
4) Laxman 2521 @ 57.97 in 34 tests
5) Dhoni 1850 @ 48.68 in 31 tests
6) Dravid 2392 @ 40.54 in 36 tests

Dravid, before and since Jan 2007

Till Dec 2006 : 9098 runs at 57.58
After Jan 07 : 2392 runs at 40.54



Will Dravid find his form against NZ?


Rahul Dravid shows his disappointment after being dismissed, India v Australia, 1st Test, Mohali, 3rd day, October 3, 2010
A frustrated Rahul Dravid has been a common sight recently © Associated Press


It's definitely not a shove. Perhaps it's a gentle tap on his shoulder. Only Rahul Dravid can tell. Is Dravid feeling the pressure from the youngsters? Or is it an illusion in our minds? In the seven games he has played in 2010, Dravid averages 34.60. It's a dip from his high standards, of course, but is it cause for concern?

Cricinfo's Numbers Game recently traced his decline since 2007. Have a look; it isn't pretty. It felt worse when he was hit by a Shahadat Hossain bouncer and put in a Dhaka hospital in January this year. Indian fans have this thing about bouncers and their legendary batsmen. At least the older generation does.

They will tell you how Sunil Gavaskar was never hit on his head by a bouncer. They gasped and saw it as the end of their world when Gavaskar had his bat knocked out of his hand by a snorter from Malcolm Marshall in 1983. So when Dravid went down in Mirpur as if he were shot, for some it would have felt like a signpost of Dravid's decline, and not just a misjudgement of bounce.

In nine innings after that knock, Dravid has made one fifty, in the first Test against Australia. He has fallen to left-arm seamers a few times, chasing deliveries well outside the off stump. He has always looked to get on to that front foot; at times he has ended up chasing deliveries that could have been left alone. Some have said that his back leg remains rooted to the same spot now and it has meant that he has been stretching and playing well away from the body. Others have rubbished that as unnecessary fussing over technique and it's foolish to think Dravid has suddenly developed chinks. Dravid himself hasn't said anything on the issue.

Today, he was as focussed as ever in his preparation ahead of the Test. He batted against throws from Gary Kirsten and also faced both spin and pace. When the flash bulbs and television cameras swung to Sachin Tendulkar as he walked in to the nets, Dravid took a break and relaxed by talking to the umpires. But it wasn't long before he went in for an extra session and faced Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan. A couple of deliveries leaped past his outside edge and he jabbed and pushed out a couple others before the shots started to flow and the feet started to move. His fans will hope that everything falls in place in the Tests against New Zealand and Dravid can get in a groove for the sterner test ahead in South Africa.

There was another man who batted today alongside Dravid at the nets who might also feel a bit of the heat. Gautam Gambhir's 2010 average is worse than Dravid's - he averages 27 from 6 games. He has been afflicted with injuries and been in and out of the side. In his absence, M Vijay has performed admirably, so India is not without options. Gambhir's greatest test will come in South Africa. There we will learn how he handles pace and bounce. It won't hurt him if he prepares for it with a big innings or two against New Zealand. Will Dravid and Gambhir turn things around against New Zealand? We won't have to wait long to find out.


http://www.cricinfo.com/india-v-new-zealand-2010/content/current/story/485043.html

Dravid learns lessons from Sachin

Sachin Tendulkar has been an inspiration to a whole generation of cricketers. His batting in itself is a coaching manual. This is clearly reflected in his envious cache of batting records.

On Tuesday, at the Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera near here, the Little Genius was seen in a new role. He became a source of inspiration to none other than former India skipper Rahul Dravid.

The 37-year-old Bangalorean, who has been the mainstay of India’s batting over the years, appears to have lost his Midas touch of late. Age could be a factor as Dravid’s reflexes and feet movement are not the same.

With the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina staking their claim for a spot in the Test XI, Dravid did himself no favour with scores like 77, 13, 1, 21* in the four innings against Australia last month.

Dravid is one of the most technically sound batsmen the modern era has seen, but on Tuesday, he did falter at the nets. ‘The Wall’ missed the line of the ball completely on a couple of occasions. Dravid appeared like he was struggling to negotiate the left-arm spin of Pragyan Ojha.

Seemingly upset with his misses, Dravid stood and watched Tendulkar bat. For the record, The maestro was rock-solid as ever.

Ojha, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and even coach Gary Kirsten tried their best, but Tendulkar showed no signs of ageing and played some delightful strokes.

http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_rahul-dravid-learns-lessons-from-the-master-sachin-tendulkar_1461452

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Dravid may be a part of KSCA administration


Three of Karnataka's greatest ever cricketers - Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad - will contest elections to the state cricket association (KSCA) on November 21. A fourth, Rahul Dravid, will not contest but has indicated to his former team-mates that, if they win, he will be part of the administration in some capacity.

"We are all in this together," Prasad told ESPNcricinfo.

Kumble, Srinath and Prasad have all held administrative posts with the BCCI and the ICC. Kumble was named the chairman of the National Cricket Academy in September, while Srinath has been an ICC match referee for the past few years. Prasad, currently the bowling coach with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, has coached the India Under-17 team and the Karnataka Ranji team and was the bowling coach of the national side for two years. He wa sreported last week to have accepted an assignment with the Asian Cricket Council to promote the game and groom talent in the non-cricketing parts of the continent.

Their entry marks the exit of an earlier generation of cricketers from the KSCA , led by its current secretary Brijesh Patel and including GR Viswanath, Syed Kirmani and Roger Binny. "With the changing times I'm of the belief that fresh energy, new ideas and young feet are always good for an institution," Patel said in a statement released on Tuesday. "We are lucky that we have Kumble, Dravid, Srinath and others willing to sacrifice their time and energy to take Karnataka cricket forward."

Patel and his generation of players came into administration in 1998, and he's been secretary since then.

"I've seen these cricketers closely and I've immense faith and utmost confidence in their ability and commitments to make KSCA a model association," he said. "My team and I have decided to extent unstinted support to this cause. I also appeal to all members of the KSCA to support this young team.

Rahul Dravid –The Selfless Man Who Goes Unnoticed!

Taken from Abhinav Blog

This piece is not about his runs, his centuries or his partnership – we have millions of articles dedicated on this facet. So let us move above all this! This article is about Rahul – the generous soul whose attitude makes him stand tall above others, this article is about RAHUL SHARAD DRAVID!

Rahul Dravid, the Wall of Indian Cricket team for decades is one man who hates to see a fall!

Every single time, this man has risen out of ashes, just like a phoenix and went on to create histories after histories. This selfless man sees the benefit of his team before seeing his advantages. Rather, there is no such word like “personal benefit” in his own dictionary. He may not be a Tendulkar, who is applauded as GOD in the history of world cricket, but what is his fault that he was born in his era? Rahul is the only batsman who has scored more than 10,000 runs in both the formats after Sachin Tendulkar! But this is also true that there cannot be two gods at one time. So, this selfless creature has been given the status of “The Wall” and “Mr. Dependable” and has been kept behind curtains since ages!

Many emerging cricketers can only dream of what Rahul has done for the Indian cricket – fighting so many battles and bringing glory to his country! With his warrior like attitude and amazing approach to the game, he has and will become one of the greatest icons of the world cricket. But if you are one of his CRITICS, this piece of writing would hold no relevance to you and you would keep on ignoring his contributions one after another! You will find fault in his innings where he managed to score just 15 or 20 runs and would babble about his failure to score a century just like a Sachin or a Sehwag, who managed to make centuries in the same match. But what about the matches where his sweat spoke for his achievements?


These critics would not utter a single word in his praise when this icon makes a double century or pour his heart out in saving a match on any given day! But these are CRITICS for you! You can’t help but to ignore them!

I know he does not have centuries like Tendulkar, killer-instinct like Ganguly, or strike rate like that of Sehwag, but one thing which makes him superior over others is his selfless, generous and unselfish approach towards his love for this game!

http://blog.abhinav.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/rahul.jpg

And this facet is enough to shut the mouths of all those critics who babble about this icon.
In this team, where we have all the politics running in the veins, players fighting to get slots, planning conspiracies for acquiring the position of a captain, we have one such player who thinks above all these aspects – he is Rahul Dravid!

Somewhere in all these years, Rahul never got his due as a player! But can we question about his adherence and devotion for his team. Has he ever refused to bat at any position, which was allotted to him? Has he ever denied keeping wickets at the time when he was struggling with bat? He managed to handle both the responsibilities at the same time, just because Indian team needed to accommodate the position of one extra batsman in the team!

Here is what legendary spin bowler Shane Warne wrote in his anecdote:..

“The fortress could also describe Rahul. Because once, Dravid was set, you needed the bowling equivalent of a dozen cannon firing all at once to blast him down.”...

But this is Rahul Dravid for you! Lack of acknowledgement never de-motivated him! He has still maintained that selfless approach towards life and his love – Cricket!


No matter the selectors pick him or drop him, he will continue making contributions in the Indian cricket with his selfless, yet (intentionally) unnoticed efforts!



Written By Abhinav
Source

Dravid panicked in the IPL final: Gibbs

Gibbs
JOHANNESBURG: Rahul Dravid had clicked the panic button during the final of the IPL season 2 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers, disclosed Herschelle Gibbs in his autobiography, 'To the Point'.

"He tried to play a little paddle against Harmeet Singh and got bowled. In a normal game he would never have tried that shot at that time. There was panic written all over it," Gibbs wrote about Dravid in the book that was released on Monday.

"I mean, here was a guy who had played in numerous high-pressure games. He was usually as unflappable as one got, but in this final, at a crucial time for the Royal Challengers, he played a ridiculous shot to get out," he added.

"Playing for the Deccan Chargers against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2009 IPL final was one game that proved just how unpredictable finals can be. This is where you find out which guys can or can't handle the pressure. And that pressure sometimes makes you do silly things."

Writing about the Chargers' IPL campaign in 2009, Gibbs said he was surprised by the team's triumph.

"To be honest, I still don't know how we, the Deccan Chargers, won the damn thing in 2009," Gibbs wrote in the book.

"As you know, the series was moved to South Africa for safety reasons, and our opening game was against the Kolkota Knight Riders. I think that game set the tone for us," Gibbs wrote.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Monday, November 1, 2010

I shouldn't be compared with Dravid: Pujara


Cheteshwar Pujara

NEW DELHI: Cheteshwar Pujara is distinctly uncomfortable when compared to Rahul Dravid and the Saurashtra run-machine says he is not in a hurry to realise his childhood dream of making it to the national team.

Pujara's perfect temperament, classic technique and penchant for marathon knocks drew parallel with Dravid but the 21-year old batsman insists it's way too premature.

"I don't think I should be compared with Dravid who has so much of international experience under him, while I am yet to play international cricket," a coy Pujara said.

Despite his loads of runs in domestic cricket, Pujara's wait for India cap has not materialised yet but the youngster said he was not losing patience.

"I don't know what people say. My job is to score runs and I give my best whether playing for my club or state. I know selectors are watching if I am scoring runs," he said.

"Like every other cricketer, I also think of playing for India. If I am good enough, my time will come," he said, with confidence.

Back in business after a freak injury during a practice match before the second Indian Premier League kept him out of the action since April and he slammed a double century in his comeback match which has done a world of good to his confidence.

"I just did nets before playing the match. It was a little difficult when I started batting. I was very anxious to score my first runs, I was very conscious about my batting. It was really tough as after the operation, I did not play any club or practice matches.

"But after spending 15-20 minutes at the crease, I could push myself. I was able to bat the way I did last season, though it was a difficult physically. After getting the rhythm, it was easy scoring. The double gave me immense confidence," Pujara said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/domestic-cricket/ranji-trophy/I-shouldnt-be-compared-with-Dravid-Pujara/articleshow/5314513.cms

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