Openers rain on Indian parade

Six minutes had elapsed when the pitch was finally shrouded and had it been a shower rather than a drizzle, it might well have been the end of a couple of day’s cricket, if not the match. It was poor. The rain might have been unexpected but few would have words of sympathy for the manner in which the situation was handled. It gets darker in our cricket.

Having decided to bat after winning the toss, Rahul Dravid must have spent many moments wondering if he did right, especially when Virender Sehwag was playing cat and mouse with the ball. Nathan Hauritz, in his new baggy green, spotted Sehwag’s first swipe a trifle late, then he spooned one outside the off stump, played and missed for effect and then reached out to one from McGrath in the manner of a young man asking for a date he really doesn’t want. The effort to play was made but it was done reluctantly and ball found off-stump quite easily.

On days like these, Sehwag can force some demanding questions. Should India accept his consistency and live with the fact that when he comes off, he plays match-winning innings? Should his average of over 50 be the cloak that hides everything? Or should the side demand that prudence gets married to instinct occasionally? He has shown the ability to pick the right ball to hit in the past, shown that he is quite happy to import patience into his repertoire but such occasions are rare.

More often, Sehwag is likely to disregard the match situation and play in the manner he believes is right. It is a tough call for he is a player of rare class but today, as he sat in the pavilion, Dravid would have liked to be a bit more secure.

His heart must have missed a beat though at one of McGrath’s lbw appeals against Tendulkar. Had he been given out, few would have protested and you wonder sometimes if we make too much of the poor decisions that go his way.

Once again he has arrived determined to wear the opposition down rather than take them apart. But he is up against a fine bowler in Jason Gillespie and another who, in the autumn of his career, is making a solid claim to be among the best that has ever played the game. McGrath to Tendulkar today, as in Nagpur, was fascinating.

And so it will be on day two, if we get the covers on in time.