Dravid — solid as ever

There was nothing extravagant on show during Rahul Dravid’s stay at the wicket on Wednesday. He produced a sedate knock against a bowling attack that wouldn’t trouble batsmen below him in the pecking order.

An afternoon shower meant the game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium started 45 minutes late and the match was reduced to 47 overs. India Cements lost their openers – Abhinav Mukund and Arun Karthik – in the 9th over with just 36 on board.

Subramaniam Badrinath walked in at No.3 when Karthik was run out following a mix-up. Dravid came to the wicket when BSNL skipper Joginder Singh trapped Mukund in front of the stumps.

Dravid pushed the third ball he faced from Joginder to the mid-wicket area and scampered for a single. Soon he played an on-drive off medium pacer NS Negi to find his first boundary of the innings. Dravid was a touch lucky when he pulled against Negi and the ball went towards the fine-leg boundary. He couldn’t find the gaps in the 11th over of the innings against Joginder. It resulted in a maiden. It wasn’t the most fluent innings seen from this senior batsman but given the quality of the opposition and the occasion a greater effort wasn’t called for.

Early in his innings he square cut medium-pacer Sunil Dholpure for his second boundary. Against left-arm spinner Ankur Kakkar, Dravid used his feet to loft the ball and earn another boundary. He brought up his half-century off 70 balls when he played Negi through point for a four.

Shortly after reaching his half-century he leaned forward and hit Dholpure for a six over long off. But in an effort to paddle sweep Niranjan Behera, Dravid exposed his leg stump and paid the price. The disappointment was obvious as he trudged his way back to the pavilion.

Earlier, Badrinath charged down to Negi and hit the ball past the bowler for his second four. He had hit the same bowler for a cover drive a short while earlier. Badrinath reached his half century off 66 balls by hitting Kakkar through long-off for a boundary.

The partnership between Badrinath and Dravid yielded 127 runs, the best of the innings.
The target of 254 was a tall order for BSNL. Anshul Kapoor’s 51 off 72 balls kept his team alive for a brief while in the chase. Two wickets in as many balls, that of Kapoor, bowled by off-spinner S Suresh Kumar and Ankur Kakkar, who was one of the three run out victims, set BSNL back.

Opener BBCC Mohapatra was the first to go, run out after a bout of hesitation. Dravid then dived to his right at first slip to grab a chance offered by Arindam Das off Palani Amarnath.

Lower down the order skipper Joginder Singh looked like he would make a match of it by hitting 34 in 30 balls, including three sixes. But in search of another big shot he edged Laxmipathy Balaji to wicketkeeper Kamlesh. BSNL showed that they had the heart for a fight but fell short on skill and application and eventually losing by 25 runs.

Brief scores: India Cements 253 for 5 in 47 ovs (Subramanian Badrinath 90, Rahul Dravid 63, S Suresh Kumar 42; Joginder Singh 1/14, Niranjan Behera 2/37) bt BSNL 228 for 9 in 47 ovs (Anshul Kapoor 51, Joginder Singh 34; S Suresh Kumar 2/28, Hemang Badani 2/26)