A tourist destination

70 hundreds by visiting batsmen from 69 Tests at Adelaide,history provides hope for India

A wire-mesh cage sits amidst the bats,blazers and baggy greens in the Bradman museum at the Adelaide Oval. Inside is the water tank that served as one of Bradmans earliest cricketing opponents.

Up on the wall is an endlessly looping video of a young Bradman bouncing a golf ball against the corrugated tin wall of the tank and facing up to its unpredictable deliveries with a stump. He middles nearly everything. Museum visitors can try their luck too,and marvel at Bradmans eye and reflexes as they struggle to lay stump to ball.

If there is one ground in Australia where Bradman could conceivably have faced up to Test bowling with a stump and enjoyed some measure of success,its the Adelaide Oval. Bradman made three centuries in seven Tests here,including the highest ever score at the venue,a tantalising 299 not out against South Africa in 1932.

And it isnt just Australians who have enjoyed batting at the Adelaide Oval. Records suggest that its easily been the most welcoming venue for visiting batsmen,who have scored 70 hundreds here in 69 Tests. Its taken 100 Tests for overseas batsmen to score 73 hundreds at the SCG,while its taken them 104 Tests to score 69 at the MCG.

Indians have certainly loved the flat deck and the short square boundaries at Adelaide,with nine of their batsmen raising their bats to the crowd over the years,Vijay Hazare doing so twice in the same Test in 1947-48.

Four of the current lot,moreover,are on that list. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman scored hundreds in tandem in 2003-04,putting on 303 in the process,while 2007-08 brought a century from Sachin Tendulkar in the first innings and one from Virender Sehwag in the second. At the tail-end of a Test series filled with misery,Indias batsmen can take some sort of solace from these happy memories. Sehwag,who will skipper the side as MS Dhoni serves his one-match ban,might reflect particularly hard on his match-saving 151 four years ago,an innings of rare restraint where he went an entire session without a boundary.

That innings sealed Sehwags comeback to the Test team after a year out of it. Now,it might take a similar knock for him to restore his overseas credentials. Since that 151,Sehwag hasnt scored a single century outside the subcontinent.

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The other three,meanwhile,are most definitely playing their last Test in Australia. For various reasons,their individual contributions havent been up to scratch on this tour. Dravid has been bowled too often for comfort,Laxman has looked unable to answer the Australian seam attacks relentless probing around his off stump and Tendulkar has been great for the highlights packages but hasnt yet influenced a game.

With Indias schedule for the next two years packed with home Tests,its unlikely that any of the three will play a Test away from home post-Adelaide. For the better part of the last decade,these three were the main architects of Indias emergence as a force away from home. But its all come crashing down in two tours. Now,Adelaide represents a last chance to salvage a stray turret or arch from the ruins of the monument they built.

High on grass?

There is talk of extra grass on the wicket,to prolong the trial by sideways movement that India have constantly endured on the tour. But as Sydney showed,a little bit of grass doesnt change the essential character of a wicket,especially in warm,dry weather. It only makes batting a little challenging during the first couple of sessions.

Were they to survive that challenge or pass it up entirely by batting second,Adelaide might provide India their best opportunity to finally put up a substantial total. The last 10 Test matches at the venue have seen 10 totals of 500 or more.