Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Rahul Dravid took 169 balls to score his 23rd Test century, but the 10 balls he faced this morning on 95, before he gave the clear St Lucia air a quick jab with his raised bat, had their own little story to tell 8212; of how this could so easily have been the 33-year-old8217;s 32nd century.
As he completes 10 years in Test cricket nine days from now, Dravid has got out in 90s nine times. And, as he went to sleep yesterday on 95, that number would surely have knocked at the door. Especially after a cover drive off Ramnaresh Sarwan flew inches past a diving Chris Gayle at short cover in the second-last ball he faced on the first day.
The hundred did come, finally, unlike that June summer afternoon at Lord8217;s in his debut Test when Dravid edged all-rounder Chris Lewis for a catch behind the wicket for 95, leaving Sourav Ganguly to savour his Test debut with a century.
Then again, during the Sri Lanka tour of 1997, Dravid got out in the 90s in successive Tests, both in Colombo. His scores then: 92 and 93. Now fast-forward to the Mohali Test against England this year 8212; India won by nine wickets, but Dravid8217;s first innings score? 95. Of course, the Indian skipper has this one big name in front of him in the 90s charts 8212; Steve Waugh has fallen 10 times on the home stretch.
But there8217;s this other figure, which suggests that Dravid could have actually got past Sachin Tendulkar8217;s 35 hundreds by now. Check out the number of times he has got lost in the 80-100 corridor: 17.
