Sports India

The Indian cricket board is on an overdrive to instil professionalism in everything it’s about, but there are few signs of professional behaviour in the National team’s methods of dealing with the media.

Forget a media manager whose job would be to issue updates on the team’s activities it has been difficult to get even basic information from the team on this tour.

For example, nobody was available to confirm whether Virender Sehwag had indeed been fined by the match referee in the first Test over 24 hours after the incident; no one had a clue when the team was going to practice after four days of rest before the third Test; and no one ever cared to explain how teams were being selected. It is certainly not necessary for the team to hand to the media the minutes of team meetings, but even answers to elementary questions like whether someone was dropped on form or due to a fitness problem are impossible to come by.

For instance, there was no answer to why Pathan and Harbhajan were not included in the XI in the first Test. It was a simple matter of saying that the two didn’t fit in the scheme of things for the match, but the team manager messed it up by saying that they were rested.

Things got worse for the third Test, with the team shutting down almost all channels of communication. Though not mandatory, the custom is that someone from the team turns up for a post-day media session. The West Indians make it a point to have a media session with their player of the day - or Brian Lara himself. He has turned up for such media interactions at least 15 times in the series, but his Indian counterpart has remained elusive. It was particularly bad on Day 1 of the third Test: Wasim Jaffer did turn up, but he had no answer to questions like why Pathan was not in the XI.

The team, of course, is not bound to pass on to the media every details of its strategy. The point here is that there can be non-controversial answers to why a player has been chosen ahead of someone else, and this team is not ready to accept this simple fact.

It surely wouldn’t have been a huge blow to the team’s morale had the captain, coach or one of the two selectors present here come forward and said that a player has been left out because the team thinks it has better options. By keeping such simple things under veil, this team is probably paving the way for speculative journalism, which is unfortunate.

The team does have a manager, but he has little knowledge of what is happening - his stock answer is “I don’t know". Since the Indian board is basically all about bucks, the buck - as they say - must finally stop with it. In turning into a ‘cash elephant’ from a ‘cash cow’, it has plenty.

India were 150 for two in their first innings at the close of the third day’s play in the third Test against West Indies at St Kitts.

The visitors are still 431 runs behind West Indies’ mammoth total of 581, which could have been higher if not for a dramatic lower order collapse in the post-lunch session.

At stumps, VVS Laxman was unbeaten on 28 and captain Rahul Dravid was on 20.

India lost both their openers in similar fashion, when after getting a good start the batsmen edged the ball to Brian Lara at second slip.

Corey Collymore struck for the hosts in his first over removing the in-form Virender Sehwag. The Nawab of Najafgarh made 31. He was involved in a 61-run opening stand with Wasim Jaffer.

The Mumbai batsman was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo for 60 off 101 balls. His innings included 10 hits to the fence. Jaffer and VVS Laxman put on a 63-run second wicket stand.

Dramatic collapse

Earlier, in a dramatic turn of events, West Indies were bowled out for 581 in their first innings with Harbhajan Singh picking up five wickets.

West Indies lost their last five wickets for just 45 runs. Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was stranded on 97 at the other end as the West Indies lower order was devoured by the Turbanator.

The day’s play was in complete contrast to the second day’s fast-paced innings as Chanderpaul and his overnight partner Marlon Samuels frustrated the Indian attack.

Resuming on the overnight score of 420 for five, the West Indies cruised to 536 for five at lunch with both the batsmen avoiding playing any extravagant shots.

Virender Sehwag struck for the Indians right after lunch when he had Samuels caught by Harbhajan for a well compiled 87 that included eight boundaries and three sixes.
Samuels and Chanderpaul put in place a 156-run partnership.

Then Harbhajan took over and finished off the Windies.

He first had Denesh Ramdin caught by Wasim Jaffer at backward square leg for three. Taylor was the next to go, caught by Yuvraj Singh.

Pedro Collins failed to read Bhajji’s doosra and gave Rahul Dravid the simplest of catches at first slip.

The Turbanator then picked up his final wicket as he bowled Corey Collymore for a duck and finished with figures of five for 147 from his 43.6 overs.

Munaf Patel picked up three wickets, while Sehwag and Sreesanth picked one each.

Teams

India: Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

West Indies: Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Corey Collymore, Pedro Collins, Jerome Taylor.

ST. KITTS: Indian captain Rahul Dravid has rebutted criticism about leaving out Harbhajan Singh for the first two Tests, saying Virender Sehwag as part-time bowler has performed the fifth bolwer’s role efficiently.

“Harbhajan is a good bowler so when he is fit, he always comes into consideration. But then four bowlers did the job for us in the last game,” Dravid said on Tuesday.

“In an ideal scenario, we would have liked to have five bowlers but Veeru has done the job for us.” The issue of Harbhajan is a live one among cricket fans and experts for the Indian team clearly missed his services in the first two Tests. The third Test starts on Wednesday. He bowled brilliantly in the preceding one-day series, was rested in the first Test though in the second was only half-fit when the game began in St. Lucia.

In Harbhajan’s absence, India played an inexperienced attack in the first Test. Between Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and VRV Singh, the experience was of no more than four Tests.

In the second too, Irfan Pathan was included but despite his two wickets, he didn’t appear a frontline option for India. The situation was saved by Virender Sehwag who picked up four wickets each in the first two Tests and provided breakthroughs whenever the team needed it. His scalp included no less than that of Brian Lara and a certain Dwayne Bravo was shielded away from him. “If Sehwag can keep bowling like that, it gives us options. He can play the relieving role, somebody like (Chris) Gayle he can be a reliever. It adds potency to the attack.”

Dravid though wasn’t the one who was too worried about the inexperience of his bowlers. “These boys don’t have much experience but they have done a good job,” the captain said.

“Munaf has been brilliant in the series. Sreesanth bowled particularly well in the second innings (of the first Test). VRV Singh has shown a lot of promise and good ability. If we do the same thing what we did in the last two Tests, we surely would get result.”

“If we get big scores and get them out cheaply in the first innings, and if we can keep up the good work in the second, we can give good account of ourselves.”

Dravid didn’t read too much into the presence of grass on the strip in the middle. “I am not the one who worries too much about grass. I rather look at the moisture content in the wicket, whether it can break up or if it slows up. There is still some time to the Test so I would have a better idea only around the time when the game starts.”

The Indian captain felt the break after the second Test did a world of good to the players who were carrying niggles and injury.

“The holiday has ensured that there is a fit squad to choose from. The break has been a help in that sense. For me personally I could switch off from the game. I hope the benefits of the break show in the performance of boys,” added Dravid.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid has rebutted criticism about leaving out Harbhajan Singh for the first two Tests, saying Virender Shewag as part-time bowler has performed the fifth bowler’s role efficiently.

“Harbhajan is a good bowler so when he is fit, he always comes into consideration. But then four bowlers did the job for us in the last game,” Dravid said on Tuesday.

In an ideal scenario, we would have liked to have five bowlers but Veeru has done the job for us. He adds extra string in the bow for us.”

The issue of Harbhajan is a live one among cricket fans and experts for the Indian team clearly missed his services in the first two Tests.

The third Test starts tomorrow.

He bowled brilliantly in the preceding one-day series, was rested in the first Test though in the second was only half-fit when the game began in St. Lucia.

In Harbhajan’s absence, India played an inexperienced attack in the first Test. Between S Sreesanth , Munaf Patel and VRV Singh, the experience was of no more than four Tests.

In the second test too, Irfan Pathan was included but despite his two wickets, he didn’t appear a frontline option for India.

The situation was saved by Virender Sehwag who picked up four wickets each in the first two Tests and provided breakthroughs whenever the team needed it.

His scalp included no less than that of Brian Lara and a certain Dwayne Bravo was shielded away from him.

BRIAN LARA loves to have his way, everyone knows that, and almost everyone believes he does have his way ­ to the extent that when Dave Mohammed was left out of the West Indies team for the second Test against India, cricket fans around the region were convinced that Lara, the captain who had spoken highly of Mohammed going into the first Test, had changed his opinion about the skill, the potential of the left-arm wrist spinner.

Apparently, however, that was not the case ­ at least not according to Lara.

Speaking in St. Kitts a few days ago, Lara said that if you got a spinner that’s doing very well in the regional tournament, he should be encouraged because a spinner adds variety to the attack.

“Dave Mohammed got close to 50 wickets. We’ve seen Omari Banks do well with both bat and ball, and these guys should be included because any good combination would include a spinner,” said Lara.

CENSORED

Apart from his disappointment that a genuine spin bowler was not included in the team, Lara also lamented the fact that an out and out fast bowler was not selected for the second Test match and that one is not selected for the current Test match.

In other words, it appears that Lara, the captain who has also said that he has been censored, that he has been told to curb his comments, and that he and the selectors “are not singing from the same hymn sheet", hardly has a say, if any at all, in the selection of the West Indies team.

While that is not surprising, while that has been the case since the arrival of coach Bennett King, that is not good for West Indies cricket ­ certainly not with a man like Lara as the captain of the team.

Although those who employed King as the coach were not the same people who selected Lara as the captain, they should have known what King had demanded, they should have known what Lara expected, and they now have a problem on their hands.

Apart from his greatness as a batsman, Lara knows the game, he has ideas and convictions, he has a strong personality, he is a leader, and as a leader, as a champion performer, he is not going to sit back and just listen to someone telling him about the game - certainly not about who will play, not about bowling changes and field settings and not about how to dismiss a batsman.

Lara may not have meant it to come out the way it sounded, but it did not come over too well, not when he said, apparently in response to King’s comments sometime ago that West Indies had no spin bowlers of quality, that “I’m not going to pay too much mind to the fact that they’re not top-class spinners” and that “many top-class spinners start their careers very low key and have moved on to become very good spinners", but more so when he said, “I suppose we’ve got to play with what we’ve got", and that “we have to make do with what we have and try as much as possible to get a game out there.”

FRUSTRATED

While Lara may not have meant it to sound that way, while he probably did not mean to suggest that West Indies do not have the chance of a snow ball in Hell, it is possible, however, that he has become so frustrated with the selectors and especially the coach - the man who has the final say in who plays, that he, a man who is accustomed to having his own way most of if not all the time, really believes that this West Indies team, with six specialist batsmen and one batting all-rounder, with only three specialist bowlers and no specialist spin bowler, with batsmen Christopher Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels parading as spin bowlers, and with three ordinary pace bowlers along with a batting all-rounder who also bowls pace, have no chance to defeat a team which, in three innings, has scored 241, 521 for six declared and 588 for eight declared.

Although Harbhajan Singh has finally been selected, Lara is probably as mad about what is happening with the selection of his team as he was happy with what was happening with the selection of the Indian team - a team that despite its history, despite the success of its spin bowlers over the years, had, in the first two Test matches, refused to pick offspinner Harbhajan, and with one specialist spin bowler in Anil Kumble, with West Indies hanging on at 298 for nine and at 294 for seven in the second innings of the first two Test matches, missed two glorious chances of winning two Test matches.

“He (Harbhajan) is definitely a top-class spinner,” said Lara a few days ago. “His record shows that. If he’d played in Antigua or even in St. Lucia he would definitely have been a handful compared to (Virender) Sehwag.”

In those two Test matches, Sehwag, the batsman who had taken three wickets in his previous 45 Test matches, returned the impressive figures of two wickets for 32 runs off 11 overs, two for 39 off 11, three for 33 off 16.1, and one for 48 off 30 overs.

India were 150 for two in their first innings at the close of the third day’s play in the third Test against West Indies at St Kitts.

The visitors are still 431 runs behind West Indies’ mammoth total of 581, which could have been higher if not for a dramatic lower order collapse in the post-lunch session.

At stumps, VVS Laxman was unbeaten on 28 and captain Rahul Dravid was on 20.

India lost both their openers in similar fashion, when after getting a good start the batsmen edged the ball to Brian Lara at second slip.

Corey Collymore struck for the hosts in his first over removing the in-form Virender Sehwag. The Nawab of Najafgarh made 31. He was involved in a 61-run opening stand with Wasim Jaffer.

The Mumbai batsman was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo for 60 off 101 balls. His innings included 10 hits to the fence. Jaffer and VVS Laxman put on a 63-run second wicket stand.

Dramatic collapse

Earlier, in a dramatic turn of events, West Indies were bowled out for 581 in their first innings with Harbhajan Singh picking up five wickets.

West Indies lost their last five wickets for just 45 runs. Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was stranded on 97 at the other end as the West Indies lower order was devoured by the Turbanator.

The day’s play was in complete contrast to the second day’s fast-paced innings as Chanderpaul and his overnight partner Marlon Samuels frustrated the Indian attack.

Resuming on the overnight score of 420 for five, the West Indies cruised to 536 for five at lunch with both the batsmen avoiding playing any extravagant shots.

Virender Sehwag struck for the Indians right after lunch when he had Samuels caught by Harbhajan for a well compiled 87 that included eight boundaries and three sixes.
Samuels and Chanderpaul put in place a 156-run partnership.

Then Harbhajan took over and finished off the Windies.

He first had Denesh Ramdin caught by Wasim Jaffer at backward square leg for three. Taylor was the next to go, caught by Yuvraj Singh.

Pedro Collins failed to read Bhajji’s doosra and gave Rahul Dravid the simplest of catches at first slip.

The Turbanator then picked up his final wicket as he bowled Corey Collymore for a duck and finished with figures of five for 147 from his 43.6 overs.

Munaf Patel picked up three wickets, while Sehwag and Sreesanth picked one each.

India were 150 for two in their first innings at the close of the third day’s play in the third Test against West Indies at St Kitts.

The visitors are still 431 runs behind West Indies’ mammoth total of 581, which could have been higher if not for a dramatic lower order collapse in the post-lunch session.

At stumps, VVS Laxman was unbeaten on 28 and captain Rahul Dravid was on 20.

India lost both their openers in similar fashion, when after getting a good start the batsmen edged the ball to Brian Lara at second slip.

Corey Collymore struck for the hosts in his first over removing the in-form Virender Sehwag. The Nawab of Najafgarh made 31. He was involved in a 61-run opening stand with Wasim Jaffer.

The Mumbai batsman was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo for 60 off 101 balls. His innings included 10 hits to the fence. Jaffer and VVS Laxman put on a 63-run second wicket stand.

Dramatic collapse

Earlier, in a dramatic turn of events, West Indies were bowled out for 581 in their first innings with Harbhajan Singh picking up five wickets.

West Indies lost their last five wickets for just 45 runs. Shivnaraine Chanderpaul was stranded on 97 at the other end as the West Indies lower order was devoured by the Turbanator.

The day’s play was in complete contrast to the second day’s fast-paced innings as Chanderpaul and his overnight partner Marlon Samuels frustrated the Indian attack.

Resuming on the overnight score of 420 for five, the West Indies cruised to 536 for five at lunch with both the batsmen avoiding playing any extravagant shots.

Virender Sehwag struck for the Indians right after lunch when he had Samuels caught by Harbhajan for a well compiled 87 that included eight boundaries and three sixes.
Samuels and Chanderpaul put in place a 156-run partnership.

Then Harbhajan took over and finished off the Windies.

He first had Denesh Ramdin caught by Wasim Jaffer at backward square leg for three. Taylor was the next to go, caught by Yuvraj Singh.

Pedro Collins failed to read Bhajji’s doosra and gave Rahul Dravid the simplest of catches at first slip.

The Turbanator then picked up his final wicket as he bowled Corey Collymore for a duck and finished with figures of five for 147 from his 43.6 overs.

Munaf Patel picked up three wickets, while Sehwag and Sreesanth picked one each.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid has rebutted criticism about leaving out Harbhajan Singh for the first two Tests, saying Virender Sehwag as part-time bowler has performed the fifth bowler’s role efficiently.
“Harbhajan is a good bowler so when he is fit, he always comes into consideration. But then four bowlers did the job for us in the last game,” Dravid said on Tuesday.

“In an ideal scenario, we would have liked to have five bowlers but Veeru has done the job for us. He adds extra string in the bow for us.”

The issue of Harbhajan is a live one among cricket fans and experts for the Indian team clearly missed his services in the first two Tests.

The third Test starts on Thursday.

He bowled brilliantly in the preceding one-day series, was rested in the first Test though in the second was only half-fit when the game began in St. Lucia.

In Harbhajan’s absence, India played an inexperienced attack in the first Test. Between Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and VRV Singh, the experience was of no more than four Tests.

In the second too, Irfan Pathan was included but despite his two wickets, he didn’t appear a frontline option for India.

The situation was saved by Virender Sehwag who picked up four wickets each in the first two Tests and provided breakthroughs whenever the team needed it.

His scalp included no less than that of Brian Lara and a certain Dwayne Bravo was shielded away from him.

Scotland’s first ODI is a tough one … Neil Drysdale asks Rahul Dravid how the Saltires plan to outplay Pakistan

It’s a radiant Monday in St Kitts, the temperature is 94 degrees, and yet, even as some of his compatriots are enjoying a chilled drink and a perusal of the newspapers, Rahul Dravid has flung himself into a beach volleyball match with the same intensity he brings to his cricketing exploits.
There are no half-measures with this individual: instead, while seamlessly combining old-world courtesy with 100% professionalism, the 33-year-old Indian captain agrees to talk later about Scotland’s first official ODI, against Pakistan at the Citylets Grange on Tuesday. He duly demonstrates in the process that he has kept in touch with the Saltires since 2003, when one of the planet’s best performers joined Craig Wright’s team.

The statistics don’t lie in his case; this weekend marks a decade since Dravid made his international debut against England at Lord’s and demonstrated glimpses – of both the mental fortitude which would earn him the sobriquet The Wall, and also the glittering stroke play – which has subsequently illuminated the game. A career thus far spanning 103 Tests has yielded 8810 runs at an average of 58.34.

Initially, he was a quiet accumulator, a Trevor Bailey for the 21st century with a Karnataka twang but, despite the scepticism expressed when the news broke that he had agreed terms with Scotland, prior to Wright’s personnel embarking on their maiden campaign in the NCL, Dravid shone resplendently on and off the pitch. He implemented demolition jobs on several hapless English county attacks, signing autographs patiently wherever he went, throwing himself enthusiastically into coaching sessions with youngsters in Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, the Borders … wherever there were little batsmen and bowlers with bigger dreams than their pad sizes.

“He was completely devoid of ego, he just wanted to be regarded as one of the team and his disappointment on the few occasions he missed out, showed how much it meant,” recalls Wright. “He was simply inspirational.”

One of those rare failures, ironically, came against Pakistan in a tussle at Hamilton Crescent, where Dravid was dismissed first ball by a treacherous delivery from Shabbir Ahmed, which stunned the crowd into aghast silence. “I knew you would remind me of that, and ‘very disappointed’ doesn’t begin to describe how I felt, but it was a measure of the Scots’ commitment and their determination to succeed that they still pushed the tourists all the way, and Pakistan only scraped home by one wicket at the death,” recalls Dravid.

“That has to send out positive messages as to how they should approach this latest contest because, while Pakistan are a very good side – as they proved in beating England emphatically during the winter, they will have virtually no time to acclimatise and I would not imagine they will relish playing less than 48 hours after touching down, considering that the conditions will be completely alien to them, so there is no reason why the likes of Craig [Wright], Paul [Hoffmann], John [Blain] and Ryan [Watson] can’t put them under pressure. No Test team fancies going into a game like this cold, and the fact that Pakistan will be missing several of their key bowlers, including Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, means that the Scots have to do their utmost to make life difficult for their opponents.

“If they win the toss, so much the better if they lay down a declaration of intent by sending in Pakistan and try to remove one or two of the top order with the new ball. Judging by results in the C&G Trophy, the Scots are definitely making progress and they have absolutely nothing to lose in this fixture.

“The ICC has decided to spread the cricket gospel quicker than I thought they would and there could be no better way for Craig’s boys to prove they mean business than by emulating what Bangladesh did against the Australians in Cardiff last year and springing a shock. If they get off to a decent start, and if the seamers can land the ball in the right place, I truly think it could happen.”

Dravid’s captaincy commenced last October with a 6-1 trouncing of the bulk of the Sri Lankans who are currently orchestrating so much grief for England. As somebody with an astonishing limited-overs record for India of 9528 runs in 292 matches – including 71 half-centuries and a dozen 100s – his opinions are not to be dismissed lightly, and particularly given the slap-dash nature in which Inzamam-ul-Haq’s squad have prepared for their sojourn to Blighty.

As recently as Friday, they were involved in a practice match on their own turf, as the prelude to jetting over to Scotland and, while nobody questions their status as favourites in Edinburgh, they appear to have forgotten how close they were to slipping to defeat in 2003.

“Even three years ago, the Saltires were invariably tough to beat and, by qualifying for the 2007 World Cup and winning the ICC Trophy in Ireland, the players have fulfilled their end of their bargain. Although I have reservations about bringing in so many new countries at such short notice, I genuinely reckon that Scotland has the infrastructure and the ambition to keep marching forward, at least within the one-day circuit,” says Dravid.

“The trick was for the ICC to get cricket up and running, in every country in Europe, and that has materialised with the emergence of Ireland and Holland and Denmark. The next stage entails the creation of some kind of professional set-up and I am slightly disappointed that it hasn’t already occurred in Scotland, when you weigh up what Craig’s boys have achieved in recent seasons.

“I know football is number one over there – and you should see the coverage the World Cup is gaining in the Caribbean – but Scottish cricket seriously impressed me. I would love to be involved again in the future and, while that is unlikely for the next 18 months, given the crazy, non-stop schedule which has been devised by the ICC, I will be there in spirit, if not in body, at the Grange on Tuesday.”

Live green grass had tricked Lara into picking four fast-medium men. The pitch turned out to be slow and low — difficult to score quick runs on, equally difficult to take wickets, writes S. Ram Mahesh

The gathering of rain clouds over the Beausejour Cricket Ground on the fourth day of the second Test could have been the defining moment of the series. Not to put too fine a point on it, but India would most likely have won the match had the rain stayed away.

The visiting side needed nine wickets in a minimum of 180 overs; they got seven in 119 after 90 were erased. “We almost won the match in four days,” said Dravid. “Had we not lost those 90 overs we would have had a good chance of winning. We got 17 wickets in 200 overs and made 588 on the same wicket at four an over. We can take a lot of heart that we dominated for four days.”

The final day was another tense affair much like the first Test in Antigua. There West Indies had hung on by a wicket. The hero at St. Lucia was Brian Lara, who made a 307-ball 120 after walking out at number three to deny India on the fifth day. “This innings was something definitely different,” said Lara. “I was still able to get a hundred in two sessions. Looking at my innings before this, I was out to rash shots. So, I just wanted to get past the first 50 or 60 balls. It was an innings I enjoyed, and an innings I learnt from.

“Yeah, it’s a different mind-set. My batting is attacking. I am more likely to set up matches than save them. But, I learnt a lot from my batting today. I’m not sure how many innings I’ve played in the past which are like this. The number of balls I played, I’d have been on 250.”

The Indians had many close shouts for leg-before against Lara: at least two were dead-eye certain. Decisions going against a team are part of cricket — India didn’t complain — but in a four-day game every little bit matters. Ironic perhaps — and maybe even poetic justice — that when Lara did cop a leg-before decision it was wrong. His pad was outside off-stump, and the ball would have missed off in any event.

Even at that stage, India had a chance. It had over 20 overs to get five wickets — two in quick succession and panic could have set in. But, Bravo watched out the critical phase, and then Bradshaw soaked up 40 balls for his one to avert danger.

India had put itself in a commanding position thanks to excellent cricket over three days. The batting clicked: Virender Sehwag, Dravid, and Mohammad Kaif made different centuries on a track that had a deceptive facade.

Live green grass had tricked Lara into picking four fast-medium men. The pitch turned out to be slow and low — difficult to score quick runs on, equally difficult to take wickets. India’s performance in both departments — viewed in that context — looks even more impressive.

Sehwag came within a whisker of becoming the first Indian to score a hundred before lunch — he missed it by a run on day one. “I knew no Indian had made a century before lunch, so I was disappointed at not getting it,” he said before adding the pre and post-ball routines psychologist Dr. Rudi Webster suggested had helped.

Dravid’s innings was another immaculate conception. Until he chased the widest long hop imaginable, he had done enough to reiterate that he belonged among the greatest of all time. But, the most important hundred was Kaif’s maiden effort. The 25-year-old from Allahabad has been India’s nearly man in Test cricket — an injury after two half-centuries against Australia in 2004 didn’t aid his effort to infiltrate the elite Indian middle order.

After a match-saving 91 against England in the first Test earlier this year, he was left out — the five-bowler theory’s collateral damage. With his performance in the second Test — following his unbeaten 46 in the second innings of the first Test — Kaif may have come of age in the five-day format.

India’s bowling was pegged around the impressive Munaf Patel and the great Anil Kumble, with Sehwag’s off-spin being the surprise package. Munaf may not be the tear-away 150 kmph-bowler he was hyped to be: he is a lot more. He bowls between 132 and 144 kmph, hits the right regions, and cuts it both ways. And he can last long spells. Kumble bowled beautifully. He varied pace, bowled with flight, and plugged away all day on the fifth.

“Well, in this match, fortune didn’t favour us — losing out on those 90 overs,” said Dravid. “But, we can’t get too disappointed. The part of the game that was in our hands, that we could control, we did really well. We have a reputation of not playing too well abroad. We have shown that we can. If we continue to play good cricket, we will win a Test match at some stage.”