Dravid's declaration was spot-on

Dravid's declaration was spot on
[TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

The Multan Test will be remembered for many reasons: India ’s historic win, Sehwag’s record 309, Kumble and Pathan’s incisive bowling, Sachin’s all-round show and Rahul Dravid’s shrewd, courageous captaincy.

Yes, that’s right. In all the hype and hoopla, let’s not forget to acknowledge that Dravid stands vindicated for putting team interest foremost while declaring the innings, even at the risk of attracting tremendous criticism.

Everybody has 20:20 vision when it comes to hindsight. So it’s easy to say there was plenty of time left. But on Day two, as the Indian batsmen ground away on a track that could have given Sleeping Beauty a complex, could anyone have foreseen the Pakistani capitulation? The team management decided, sensibly, that it would take a crack at the Pakistanis midway through the last session of the day’s play.

At tea on the second day, India were 588 for 4, after 148 overs. Since 90 overs have to be bowled in a day, there were about 32 overs to go. Tendulkar was on 165, Yuvraj on 11. When Yuvraj was dismissed, he had raced to 59, while Tendulkar was on 194. This happened after 161.5 overs, or 13.5 overs after tea. Factor in 10 minutes (or two overs) for the Pakistani batsmen to get started. India then got to bowl 16 overs.

In other words, the session was split evenly between the Indian and Pakistani batting, as planned.

Sachin may have been disappointed. But was he really taken by ‘‘surprise’’, as he later told journalists? He was reportedly briefed during the tea break. Later, Ramesh Powar ran onto the field with a message, again to alert him about the impending declaration.

Surely Sachin could have stepped up the scoring rate. It made sense for him to play sheet-anchor while Sehwag was blazing away, but both VVS Laxman and Yuvraj outscored him in the partnerships that followed.

Given that Sachin was well set, the opposition was demoralised, and the team was looking for quick runs, one would have expected him to go hammer-and-tongs at the bowlers, instead of plodding along.

Note that Sehwag took only 375 balls to get 309, while Sachin was on 194 after 348 deliveries. Sachin should once and for all bury the controversy by saying Dravid was right in declaring when he did and team interest far outweighed his personal disappointment which, in any case, has been erased by India ’s triumph. After all, Sachin himself had said his century at Rawalpindi mattered little because the team had lost.