The sultry Jamaican heat crackling with tension, pressure whistling through the Sabina Park, India poised at the revolving door, one push away from their biggest victory in a long, long time, there was one man out in the middle, hands across his chest, whom cricket history would have already stopped to applaud. Let’s say it once again here: Rahul Dravid is today the greatest batsman in Indian cricket, the finest in the world on all pitches. Even Sachin Tendulkar will shake his head to that, clap his hands. Seven successive 50s, including a brilliant hundred in the second Test of this series, look at his string of scores since January: 108, 103, 71, 95, 52, 62, 146, 68 and now that cement-like 81 and another 68. Pakistan, England and the West Indies, just one brief blip in Karachi in between. Here, in over 381 balls across three days, the Indian captain scored 149 runs, just under half of what both teams scored in their first innings. And set up what surely would be the most defining moment yet of his new role—as captain—in India’s 400th Test. Sreesanth has settled scores with Chris Gayle, then knocked over Daren Ganga, Munaf Patel has snared the ‘big’ Brian Lara, Anil Kumble has struck, the West Indies are sliding, well short of 269, and Dravid knows he’s just one step away from cricketing history, his team’s first series win in the West Indies since 1971. Time maybe to already reach for the champagne, and for Dravid to look back on two of his best knocks ever in Test cricket—two that virtually decided which way this match would go, amidst the surrounding clatter of wickets. And yes, that small matter of crossing 9,000 runs in his 105th Test. Of course, he may not agree till that final wicket is in the bag. But all of us know that every single one of those runs are fact, printed on record books, etched on every ball that has lost his sting after dashing against his bat. Trust Harbhajan Singh to cut through the reams churned out by the experts on the Banglarorean’s technique, his style, to spell it out like only a Punjabi could: “He is a champion.” On this pitch, fending off one ball from his face and then digging out the next from near his ankles, the 33-year-old proved again and again what India would be when he finally takes the last road home. “Every team would like to have a batsman like him in the team. He’s something special. Whenever we need somebody to stay at the wicket and get runs, he is always there. It’s great to see him fighting there and getting those runs for India,” said Harbhajan. Even the taciturn West Indian coach Bennet King, the classic hardball Aussie from whom you’d have to wrench out a good word for the rivals, couldn’t help shake his head in admiration. “He’s been the lynchpin, really showing the way with his batting. He doesn’t have a 50 average in Test cricket for nothing. His technique is very good, he plays the ball really late, and he plays the ball under his chin,” said King. King then pointed to two devil deliveries last evening—both sniffed the ground, speared in. The first bowled MS Dhoni, the second, an over later, bounced off the middle of Dravid’s bat. “He’s a pretty big snag, a pretty big wall,” said King. Dravid scored another six runs this morning, losing his wicket to a ground-kisser that no batsman could have kept out on such a day. But then, he had already put in much more than his share the previous evening, before Sreesanth rolled out a little cameo, including the only six of the match so far, to take India to 171. It’s a fourth innings target that should have made great players stand up to be counted. Lara failed, unlike Dravid.
