India won the toss and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to bat at the commencement of the first test match being played at Ahmedabad. But only after a half an hour into the proceedings, Indian players tails were no where to be seen – forget wagging. They were 32 for 4. Three wickets fell to the speedster Chanka Walegeda and all the three batsmen misjudged the in-swing deliveries and were clean bowled. The sound of the timber rattling time and again was nerve wrecking. At that moment it appeared that India had already lost the test match in the first hour itself.
But Rahul Dravid – the Wall- and Yuvraj the youthful hitter – had other ideas. With extreme caution, they starting re-building the Indian innings from the ruins. Yuvraj was out after compiling a wonderful suppportive 68 valuable runs. Dravid produced a gritty unbeaten 177 and had found an able ally in captain Dhoni (110) as they both pulled the team out of the pits and brought India to a commanding 385 for six at close on the opening day.
Staggering at 32 for four in the eighth over due to triple strike by left arm pacer Chanaka Welegedara, India were given oxygen by Dravid’s 27th hundred and his three figure partnerships with Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni, for the fifth and sixth wickets.
After a set-back by the cheap dismissals of openers Gautam Gambhir (1), Virender Sehwag (16), Sachin Tendulkar (4), and V V S Laxman (0), it required a determined Dravid to stem the rot and he did it like a wall.
Yuvraj stepped out of the crease to the off spinner and, finding himself in no man’s land, chose to defend for the ball to pop up high to give a dolly catch to Tilekaratne Dilshan at short covers.Yuvraj departed after raising a crucial 125-run partnership for the fifth wicket off 129 balls with Dravid, outscoring his senior partner at the end.
After the departure of Yuvraj (68), who played with caution, Dravid supported Dhoni to consolidate the innings further with a 224-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
During this process Dravid completed 11,000 Test runs. He had tested the bounce of a wicket after a considerable lapse of time, but the way he played, it appeared that he was practising in his backyard.
The Indians, scored at a brisk pace right through the day and scored 385 for 6 wickets. Dhoni left at the fag end of the day, out after scoring a captains knock of 110 runs edging a wide ball from Prasad behind the stumps, before Dravid and Harbhajan Singh saw through to the end without being separated.
From this launch-pad India can win or draw this match, and no way can they loose it.
Ravi Matah