The Wall: Solid, yet not immobile

Rahul Dravid's 177* yesterday will surely rank as one of his best, from an external and internal perspective both. Its not often that a side can finish the day at 385-6 after being 32-4 at one stage. Three batsmen made it possible but Dravid's innings was the most significant. Even more important was the fact that the fightback was not centered around mere wicket preservation; runs were scored too. Dravid and Dhoni scored centuries at a strike rate of 70, which means four runs an over (4.2 if you want to be precise). (I missed most of the day's play but am able to catch up now with the stored replay and highlights; thanks be to the wonders of streaming broadband video). I'd wondered whether Dravid was finished in all forms of cricket; on the evidence of this innings, he most emphatically is not.

When you can have days like this, test cricket will do well. Interestingly, while the morning crowd was not gigantic in numbers, it was loud enough to frame the action appropriately. Watching cricketers in white playing with classical test cricket fields was a reassuring sight, and a good reminder of why I prefer this form of cricket the most: it just looks and feels better, dammit!