Bowler's Graveyard - India v West Indies 3rd Test

Wankhede is hard work ... or so it's become in 2011. Test cricket hasn't been played here for six years and in that time the deck has become as dead as Elliot Goblet's smile. First the West Indies and now India have sent their top order out to boost their averages whilst bowlers break their heart on a useless task. This is the SCG lino of the early 1990's.

It wasn't always so. Before the ground was fallowed, it had been a result pitch going back to 1988-89. Only one draw in the previous nine Tests and one which gave even visiting sides a chance to beat the hosts. Maybe that's why they stopped playing here?

Tendulkar - will this be it?

Regardless, baring a nuclear holocaust, nothing will prevent a draw here. Sachin Tendulkar, whose quest for the 100th international hundred has been longer than Days of Our Lives, which has been going so long that it's now produced by the son of the originators because they both died! Since March, every Test, every ODI has been more about will he or won't he than India's result. His near things have overshadowed India's other great servant, Rahul Dravid, who will turn 39 in Australia this summer and yet has made five hundreds since his last birthday. Tendulkar, playing in his home town, has moved nicely towards the milestone at Wankhede, having completed two thirds of the task but each run brings greater expectation and greater pressure. Perhaps Ian Chappell's advice is the best (and let's face it, when is it not). Chappelli suggested to the Little Master, "bugger the fans: play for yourself." He was dropped by Carlton Baugh on 58, when he should have been caught. Just as well Baugh doesn't wear the Star of Pakistan on his chest.

Rahul Dravid

Dravid was magnificent. Ponting has received public assurances from the Indian No 3 that age should not weary him, nor the years condemn ... which is comfort for Ricky, but even so, at the going down of the sun, the media will crucify him. Different kettles of fish make for a different smell. Dravid remains super fit and sharp of eye and a batsmen for all places across a long space of time. He's played 160 Tests in fifteen years and the last time his batting average dropped below 50 was in his 38th Test. Like most from India who achieve longevity, he had his turn as skipper, captaining India 25 times. He chalked up 13000 runs in his innings of 82: more of them scored away than at home but then 56% of his Tests have been off shore. He averages 49 in Australia, 60 in England, 63 in New Zealand, 66 in the Caribbean and 70 in Pakistan. Only South Africa and Sri Lanka have tamed him. In any other age of Test cricket, Rahul Dravid would have stood alone as its champion but Lara, Ponting and especially Tendulkar have drawn the spotlight whilst he quietly took India to No 1 with flawless batting at first drop. Even this year, when stars stayed at home and nursed themselves for the lush pastures of England, Dravid went to the West Indies and topped the batting before scoring the hundreds in England.

His innings was a beauty. For two and a half hours, sweating so profusely he needed to change gloves three times in two and a half hours, he continued to defy the lounge chair and make his body and bat talk. He never looked like getting out, with a seemingly never ending stream of cover drives and cuts beating defensive fields which had been set after just half an hour of the Indian innings. He expired when a rare misjudgement had him cutting at the innocuous Marlon Samuels and in a clatter of keeper and bat, was given out as the ball just brushed the off stump. Earlier, on the last ball before tea, he had played Bishoo with a perfectly angled bat, only for the ball to spin backwards towards his stumps. Spinning with the speed of a man half his age with his eyes never leaving the ball, he kicked the ball with a Pele fashioned instep and managed for ball and foot to slip past the stumps my centimetres - all with losing his poise or balance.

Darren Sammy reminds
Sehwag he has dismissed
him three times in the series

Earlier, Sehwag and Gamhir had given India their characteristic quick start before Darren Sammy slipped one back at Sehwag through a small gap and bowled him. Gamhir added 71 with Dravid, bringing up his half century with eight boundaries. For once, India's refusal to allow a DRS cost them when Gamhir was given out to a catch by Baugh. He hooked at a bouncer from Ravi Rampaul which was dieing as it got to Gamhir, missed it but was given out. Replays confirmed his disappointment. Tendulkar went hard at the bowling early on, back pedalling the longer the 86 run partnership with Dravid went on. After Dravid left, it was comfort and laughs with VVS Laxman, a senior batsmen who knows when he has been served up an all you can eat buffet. Both did what they had to until stumps.

For the visitors, Sammy bowled with life early on and Rampaul was as honest as he always is with cherry in hand but under the conditions, Bishoo was excellent. The turn is slow and there is no bounce so he had to use variations in pace and flight. Given that he was bowling to two of the best batsmen against spin in the history of the game, his twenty overs at two and half was a fine achievement. He's no Warne but no one every will be. Among the rest, he looks more than handy.

This already looks as drawn out as a visit by the mother-in-law.