When India A lost their third wicket and Rahul Dravid strode out to bat, a buzz went around the ground, travelling like a swarm of bees
The Bulletin by Amit Varma10-Feb-2005
Scorecard
Rahul Dravid: indisputably the star© Getty Images
When India A lost their third wicket and Rahul Dravid strode out to bat, a buzz went around the ground, travelling like a swarm of bees. As he approached the crease, the crowds started chanting “Draa-vid, Draa-vid”, which was ironic, considering that for years, Indian crowds have cheered when Dravid has been , and they have chanted “Suh-chin, Suh-chin”. But the passing of the years has revealed Dravid to be one of India’s greats, and he has, in this tournament, shown himself again to be India’s best batsman, bar perhaps an absent man. And here, in a tense situation in the final of the Challenger Trophy, he duly shepherded his side to a win.The generous pitch at the Wankhede – the previous first-innings scores in this tournament were 280, 275 and 294 – turned miserly today, as India Seniors, after Sourav Ganguly won the toss and chose to bat, made just 211. They would have finshed with less, had it not been for a responsible 51 from Ganguly and a spirited 65 by Neeraj Patel. India A began badly, losing their first three wickets for 38, before Dravid and Dheeraj Jadhav made measured half-centuries in a century stand to end India Seniors’ hopes.Dravid did not dominate the bowling as he had in the previous two games, but he had it on a leash. Ganguly’s bowlers did not appear quite as threatening against him as they had against the other batsmen, and if his strokeplay wasn’t fluid, his innings was solid, and solidity sufficed. L Balaji bowled a nippy spell at the start of the innings, and Ranadeb Bose and Gagandeep Singh also did well, but while the early wickets they lost had taken away India A’s momentum, they never lost their composure.Jadhav, who had set the platform for India A’s win the first game with a composed 79, again showed that he has both the game and the temperament to merit opportunities at a higher level. Jadhav’s strokeplay possesses a lazy elegance – why do those two words go together so often? – but his demeanour today was workmanlike, and his 50 took all of 104 balls to come, and contained only four boundaries. But his job was to keep his wicket intact, and he patiently let many balls pass outside off, as if he was auditioning for the opener’s spot in the Test side. Once in a while he would charge out, normally with an anticlimatic end. He was finally out when he gave Ganguly the charge, missed, and was stumped by Mahendra Dhoni for 58 (139 for 4).Mohammad Kaif then joined Dravid, and though for a while India A needed to score at a run a ball, they kept their cool and got there comfortably, with a flurry of delightful strokes at the end. They had, to India Seniors’ credit, been made to sweat, but Dravid and Kaif come from a tropical land, and they kept their cool throughout.Dravid had been impressive in the field as well, captaining with focus and energy, applauding his fielders when they did well, marshalling his field placings well, and not hassling his bowlers with too much advice, as his India captain tends to do. The fielding was feisty, the bowling was disciplined, and India Seniors quickly lost early wickets.Zaheer Khan was the sharpest of the bowlers, but it was Rudra Pratap Singh, the 19-year-old left-arm medium-pacer from Uttar Pradesh, who made the early breakthroughs. He dismissed Dhoni and Suresh Raina in his first over, and Shikhar Dhawan a few overs later. Ganguly made a responsible 51, adding 37 with Dhawan and 39 with Venugopal Rao. He stroked some lovely fours in the arc between cover and backward point but was eventually run out trying to steal a quick bye. India Seniors were then 113 for 6, and an early finish to the game looked likely.Neeraj Patel counter-attacked superbly, though, showing both orthodoxy while driving in the V, and inventiveness as the innings wound down. He hit sixes off Yousuf Pathan and RP Singh, and eight fours besides. His enterprise took India Seniors’ score to 211, but the young man would have known that with a certain great batsman from Bangalore on the other side, it was unlikely to be enough. Had Patel been in the crowd, he too would perhaps have chanted “Draa-vid, Draa-vid” when India’s A’s third wicket fell. And he would have got his money’s worth.
