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Dravid stands the Test

It is an all too familiar story -- the star-studded batting lineup, which feasts on sub-continental tracks, ducks for cover the moment it finds itself in foreign locales.

You wouldn't rate Streak-Olonga-Johnson-Mbwangwa among the most potent pace attacks now in business and yet, at one point on day two of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, India, replying to the home side's first innings score of 221, found itself 127/5, with both Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin back in the hut.

In fact, at one point India was 49/3 -- and ironically, the highest score at that point was made by nightwatchman Anil Kumble, who got 29 off those runs.

Nayan Mongia's failure, late in the evening of day one, is perhaps understandable -- only a sadist would expect a keeper to do the squat-stand routine for the best part of 82 overs, and then send him out to open the innings.

India has been going along without a regular pair of openers for quite a while now -- which doesn't seem too much of a problem when playing in home conditions, but almost guarantees a bad start when the team is playing abroad. The irony in that situation -- which has seemingly escaped the selectorial mind -- is that it is precisely in foreign conditions, conducive to pace, that the side needs a solid start. Which, in turn, means that the side needs to stop using Mongia like the joker in the proverbial pack, and find a couple of steady openers in a hurry.

The plural, as in openers, is deliberately used -- Navjot Singh Balwantsingh Sidhu has been all but ruled out of future ODIs, and indications are that his Test career, too, could well be on its very last legs.

That seems very unfair to a guy whose last nine Test scores before this one reads 131, 79, 35, 43, 62, 64, 97, 74 and 44 -- but Sidhu appears to have visibly aged, this year, so much you can almost hear him creak. It is merely a matter of time before the demands of Test cricket get too much for a player who, at his very best, was not exactly a byword for physical fitness, so it would perhaps be wiser to pick two openers in one go, and let them settle in together at the top.

Tendulkar's promotion in the order, ahead of Azharuddin, was presumably with a view to up the scoring rate, try and get to a sizeable score at supersonic speed and thus put pressure on the home side.

It was a ploy that Tendulkar himself had suggested, in Calcutta, against the Australians when, with the game in the balance, Sachin came in and belted a rapidfire 79 and, with that innings, rocketed the home side into a dominant position.

This time round, however, it didn't click. Partly because the bowling and fielding didn't give the Indian batsman room for too many liberties, partly because unlike in ODIs (or in Tests played on belting batting tracks), the longer version of the game demands patience more than bluster. Tendulkar, finding himself unable to launch himself at the bowling, attempted to hit his way out of trouble, swished, missed, slashed, connected, swished again and ended up with a top edge that lobbed up for Alistair Campbell to run around and hold from slip, giving ex-Natal fast medium bowler Neil Johnson his debut wicket.

Mohammad Azharuddin did not last long enough to trouble the scorers, an airy slash accounting for his wicket. At the other end, meanwhile, it was Rahul Dravid, yet again, who had to play the role he is often berated for playing -- that of the immovable force standing between the rival bowlers and a complete collapse.

Dravid yet again played the consumate Test innings -- defensive to deliveries on length and line, dissociative when the ball was outside off, and dismissive to anything loose.

Since his debut, Dravid has been very consistent -- what he has lacked, though, is finishing. 15 50s, and just one century -- but in those 50s, are scores of 95 and 84 during his debut tour of England, 81 against South Africa, 92 against the Windies, 92, 93 and 85 in successive innings against Sri Lanka and 86 against Australia, all of which should by rights have been converted into tons.

In this respect, he could take a lesson from Saurav Ganguly, his debut partner in England -- 5 50s, 5 centuries argues a very high conversion rate. And those figures are even more impressive when you realise that only on one occasion -- when he was out for 99 in the Nagpur Test against Sri Lanka in November 1997 -- has the stylish southpaw come within sniffing distance of a century, and failed to convert.

On this occasion, though, Dravid decided to take the nervous bull by its horns, and progressed from the mid-eighties to his second century almost entirely off boundaries. At that point, his score read 100, out of a total of 243/6 -- which just about says it all for his value to the side.

Ganguly meanwhile was a mix of the attractive and the almost atrocious. The touch was evident in his off driving (and on the one occasion when he on-drove), but the one day mindset was equally in evidence as he went for the odd slashing drive or swashbuckling cut and, when tied down for a spell, danced down to Huckle and clubbed him back over his head for a six.

The two function well together, out in the middle, and it was their brief to take India past the home total. The new ball, claimed on schedule at the end of 80 overs, quietened them for a spell, and finally Ganguly fell, the flick across the line missing out and trapping the batsman LBW, bringing the debutant, Robin Singh, to the middle to partner Dravid.

When play halted two overs ahead of schedule, Dravid was still holding the fort, having batted almost the entire day, with Robin at the other end. It would seem to be up to this pair to take the lead over the 100 mark, at the very least, given that there is still three days left to play in this Test.

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