Middle-order turns the tables

The left-arm medium-pacer,playing only his second Test,got the ball to curve into the right-handers at decent,but not frightening speeds. Gautam Gambhir fell to one that held its line,his uncertain poke resulting in an inside edge that knocked the off-stump out of the ground. Next to go was Virender Sehwag,who couldn’t get his bat down to an inswinger to be caught plumb in front of the wicket. Sachin Tendulkar started his third decade in the game with a superbly timed drive,but left too big a gap between bat and pad to be castled for four. And VVS Laxman,an unsure starter at most times,played down the wrong line of an incutter from Dammika Prasad.

The message from the curator had been simple — see off the new ball and the piece of land in the centre is yours. Someone forgot to tell the Indian top-order,though,that giving bowlers the first hour does not mean gifting them wickets.

Rahul Dravid,along with Yuvraj Singh and later Mahendra Singh Dhoni,went on to prove that there was nothing in the pitch to merit a 32 for four. While Dravid was playing as positively as he ever has in a career spanning almost 14 years,it was the manner in which Yuvraj played that was heartening. With the ball still doing a little bit,the left-hander isn’t someone who too many would put their money on to bail the side out. On Monday,playing in Dravid’s shadow,he mixed up his booming drives with fair doses of caution,refusing to poke at deliveries outside off-stump as he so infuriatingly does. Only once was he squared up,by Angelo Mathews,while two thickish edges went along the ground between the slips and gully,but other than that,he looked most comfortable.

He brought up his half-century off 77 deliveries and was dismissed the first time he attempted a pre-meditated shot. Muttiah Muralitharan saw the batsman charge down the track and pinged one in short and while Yuvraj attempted to play it down,an inside edge on to his pads popped up to short cover.

Dhoni keeps pace

The spotlight was on Dravid,and Dhoni seemed to enjoy that. He was picking the gaps well enough,and running his ones and twos hard.

Against the spinners,Muttiah Muralitharan and Rangana Herath,his technique was quirky at best. He came down the track often,but these weren’t the waltzes down the pitch so typical of Indian batsmen. The first step is a hop,which blends into a walk and,after the shot is played,culminates in a short sprint. As if Dravid’s fluidity wasn’t frustrating enough for the bowlers.

The Indian skipper — and this is a weird sentence — kept pace with Dravid,matching him shot for shot. His 50 came off 80 balls (Dravid’s had taken 79) and he reached his second Test century off 154 balls with nine fours and a six (Dravid’s came off 158,with 14 fours and a six). By the time he fell,their partnership had stretched to 224 runs. Dhoni had scored 110 of them,and Dravid 111.

When Yuvraj fell,the scoreboard read 157 for five; India were out of the woods but far from being in command. However,the Dravid-Dhoni mini-contest that followed has all but ensured that the hosts can’t lose this Test — something that seemed a given after the first hour of play.