Sunday, Sep 08, 2002
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
An elated India's vice-captain Rahul Dravid acknowldges the cheers from the crowd after reaching his century on the third day of the final Test against England at the Oval on Saturday. — Photo: N. Sridharan
Dravid has truly sparkled in the English summer. There has not been more than one visiting batsman who has been in such prolific form and scored three centuries of the England attack. It was seven summers ago that Brian Lara showed his big appetite for runs and struck three centuries in the 1995 series here. India's vice-captain always looked likely to emulate an outstanding batsman like Lara and also Vaughan's whose run scoring spree started with an exact century in the second innings of the first Test at Lord's. Dravid was in magic touch and produced another gem at The Oval on Saturday. He was the skilful craftsman chiselling away unerringly to give a suitable shape to India's response that not only staved off the threat of the follow-on, but has also made England's ultimate aim of winning the series difficult at a point of time when the umpires offered light to Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman. Dravid--eight runs short of reaching 1,000 runs this year--once again basked in glory in the fading days of the English summer that appears to have been cut out for him to shine in all splendour. His third century in as many Test matches put him along side some of India's greats like Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar and a fine batsman like Vinod Kambli--but more significantly his monumental effort that has already entered the sixth hour might have given his side comforting thoughts of not going down in the Test. There are several essentials that make Test cricket a fascinating contest to watch. Foremost of which are skill, competence and capacity of a batsman and his ability to combine all these virtues over a period of time. Dravid has always given the impression of having moulded his batting to suit the traditional format of the game. Time and again he has risen to the occasion; Saturday was another day he showed his true class. Half centuries from Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly provided substance to the third and fourth wicket partnerships that together yielded nearly 200 runs. But Dravid who has loomed large in this series put enough steel in his nerves while tackling the England bowlers in the post tea session when he moved from an unbeaten 109 to 131 in 106 minutes. Dravid did not even hit a four in the post tea session that ended with India's first innings score at 315 for 4 wickets. It was not a day an Indian batsman could have afforded to dodge a task full of difficulties. Overnight rain for the second day running delayed the start of the third day's play, but only by 15 minutes. Though Dravid and Sanjay Bangar had faced the England seamers with self-assurance on Friday evening, they would have expected them to be fresh and raring to go on a pitch that had some moisture underneath. In the circumstances Bangar's temperament and his unwavering concentration fitted the bill. Bangar had turned out to be ideal foil for Dravid in the famous partnership at Headingley, but on Saturday, Matthew Hoggard got the better of him after the pair had added 21 runs. Bangar fell a victim playing at a line that is regarded as the corridor of uncertainty and Mark Butcher held the dolly with both hand at first slip. The Indians must have hoped that the law of averages did not come into play, what with Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly aggregating over 750 runs in their previous two innings. The pitch had proved to be the batsmen's ally for two days and as it transpired India's specialised batsmen showed the full range of shots in their repertoire. Dravid was in his element straightaway driving the seamers and spinners and showing the penchant for the on side shots. Hussain relied on his seamers, Hoggard and Caddick in particular. Caddick was able to extract bounce, while Hoggard pegged away around the off stump. But the third wicket pair in Dravid and Tendulkar, whose cautious countenance was blemished by a couple of few loose essays outside the off stump, thwarted the England attack. England, for once, did not resort to around the wicket bowling against Tendulkar and Dravid. The two had faced a barrage of short-pitched balls from Andrew Flintoff in the second and third Tests, for which Hussain had received flak from experts. Left arm spinner Ashley Giles did have Tendulkar in some bother when he bowled from over the wicket and pitched the all a foot outside the leg stump. But Giles' tactics did not work. Tendulkar was smart enough to make room and cut him for fours behind point. A superb backfoot drive off Giles took him past the half-century mark, but soon England got the breakthrough it was looking for when umpire Ashoka De Silva handed out a leg before decision in favour of Caddick. The Hawks Eye vision confirmed that the umpire was right, but there was an element of doubt with the trajectory of the ball bending towards the leg stump and hitting Tendulkar on the side of his shoe. The second wicket partnership of 91 runs almost made it certain that India would avoid the follow on. Sourav Ganguly's uninhibited batting display just about reflected the nature of the pitch and the inability of the England bowlers to make an impact. About half an hour before tea, Dravid took a single to reach his third successive century in a row in the series. India's fortunes in this series have depended largely on his ability to come through the testing times. He shouldered the responsibility for yet another time on Saturday.
SCOREBOARD
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