Two apart

Once Gautam Gambhir had been packed off by Jesse Ryder on the opening day of the Ahmedabad Test match against New Zealand,subsequent overs became a study for those keen on cricketing contrasts. Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid each got to his century,but in styles so different and so representative of their individual careers. The match had the statisticians and fans especially interested for its possibility of yet another Sachin Tendulkar milestone,a 50th Test hundred. In the event,Dravid and Sehwag deepened the play with a reminder of the experience and variety of Indias Test batsmen. Dravid has been seen to be struggling to regain command on his batting,but the Motera knock blew away the haze of the recent past. The Dravid aesthetic was back,the rhythm of the delivery and its despatch being met with an action that appears to elongate his arms at the point of contact of bat and ball. It took a while for the attentiveness to produce the runs,and the early runs were slowly and somewhat scrappily accumulated. But soon an older,more familiar,vaguely self-conscious Dravid was on display,and one end was kept reassuringly steady while Sehwag kept up the pace at the other. Upon getting his career highest 270 six years ago,Dravid was asked if his eye was on the 400 mark. He joked that Test matches would have to be six-day affairs for that to happen. No such time constraints detain Sehwag. In whats now become clear is far from a mindless or instinctive throw of the bat,his cricketing brain beats to another clock,and only he could make a strike rate of more than 86 look uncharacteristically slow.