Cautious Dravid bores everyone to tears and leaves England with an escape route

[King]

Rahul Dravid said before this match how wonderful it is that Test cricket in England still attracts such big crowds. Yesterday, with tactics so cautious that India almost came to a complete halt, their captain showed why the limited-overs game has become so popular in his own countryMore... Cautious Dravid bores everyone to tears and leaves England with an escape route India 664 and 180-5dec; England 345 and 56-0 (close of play) By PAUL NEWMAN - More by this author » Last updated at 23:27pm on 12th August 2007 Comments (1) Rahul Dravid said before this match how wonderful it is that Test cricket in England still attracts such big crowds. Yesterday, with tactics so cautious that India almost came to a complete halt, their captain showed why the limited-overs game has become so popular in his own country. The fourth consecutive Oval full house, many of them paying £65, were treated to a day of torpor by the conservatism of an Indian captain whose nervousness within sight of a series victory threatens to take the gloss off his team's achievement. Scroll down for more Testing time: Andrew Strauss Read more...

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Certainly, Dravid gave England every chance of escaping from this third and final npower Test with a draw when he firstly failed to enforce the follow-on after dismissing England for 345, a deficit of a mere 319, and then batted so slowly in India's second innings that momentum, and the will to live, were lost. Yes, unless England pull off a cricketing miracle today and reach their target of 500, India will still win this series. But a 1-0 victory will not only see them stay below England in the Test rankings but allow Michael Vaughan's team to point to India's great escape at Lord's and claim virtual parity. An historic run-chase today cannot be entirely discounted. Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, both in need of a score, came through 20 overs unflustered last night to reduce England's task by 56 runs after India had limped to 180 for six, at which point Dravid finally put us out of our misery by declaring. The odds, though, are still very much against a home win, even though Dravid is clearly not the type who likes a flutter. By deciding to bat again after Anil Kumble took the last England first-innings wicket, he wanted to ensure that any remote possibility of England batting themselves back into the game had been extinguished. As only three teams have ever won when following on in the small matter of 1,841 Tests, the chances of England being able to put pressure on India were, shall we say, remote. And then Dravid further reduced the merits of his gameplan by going completely into his shell after India had lost three early wickets. Statisticians, but few others, will devour the fact that Dravid can now claim the slowest 12 in Test history, that 'landmark' coming off 96 balls after he had taken 82 balls to get to six. So dull was it that one of cricket's most knowledgeable crowds began ironically cheering his every run and even, at one point, resorted to the dreaded Mexican wave. So slow was Dravid that he could contribute only five to a partnership of 65 with Sourav Ganguly, taking his nickname of 'The Wall' to ludicrous-levels before Paul Collingwood-took the most popular wicket of his limited bowling career when he induced an edge to slip from the skipper's passive blade. Last wicket: Anil Kumble In fairness, Dravid's job as India captain is probably the most pressurised in the game and the criticism he received after their calamitous World Cup will still be vivid in his memory, making him extremely reluctant to take anything remotely resembling a risk. He will also remember the last of those three Tests when a team has won following-on - he played in it. India pulled off one of the greatest Test victories after following- on against Steve Waugh's Australia in Calcutta in 2001. The prospect of giving England the chance to achieve something similar was clearly too painful to contemplate. Now, however, India have put themselves under pressure to run through England today when, in good bowling conditions yesterday, they could have already been well on their way to a convincing victory. Cloud cover for the first time in the match allowed an England attack minus Ryan Sidebottom, nursing his sore left side, to at least provide some cheer for the spectators by reducing India to 11 for three, Jimmy Anderson producing an opening spell of two for 17 in 10 overs. It is a toss-up whether Matt Prior, who regained a bit of his chirp yesterday, or umpire Ian Howell has had a worse game but the South African official's litany of poor decisions continued when he erroneously gave Wasim Jaffer lbw playing no stroke to Anderson to begin India's struggles. At least there was no dispute when Anderson sent Sachin Tendulkar's middle and leg stumps sprawling, a sad end to what will almost certainly be the Little Master's last Test innings in England. Thereafter, India nudged and nurdled their way towards setting England a target 82 runs greater than anything that has ever been successfully chased in cricket history. Dravid will be vindicated if Kumble and Co take advantage of a wearing pitch and dismiss England today but, with Zaheer Khan nursing a thigh injury, England really should be able to bat their way to at least safety on The Oval's fabled surface. Thanks to Rahul.

[King]

As expected, Rahul Dravid in full media glare. Very bad example he set as a captain playing mindless inning.

[Rajiv]

Ravi, I don't blame Dravid at all 1) Enforce the follow on; England surpasses our score and we are left to chase. England; would have been strong psychologically just for the fact that they passed out score. Frankly, seeing us at 11-3; imagine the same scenario while chasing. I bet you we would have blamed him for that as well 2) Jaffer was unlucky but Karthik and great tendulkar put him a position to hold the innings; thanks to ganguly the innings went faster 3) This is no way a single man' decision, Sachin, Gangs and Vengsarkar etc must havedecided to do this Overall, we are panicking a lot; I still feel we have a great chance of winning tomorrow Its 3 sessions

[King]

I'm not worried about the decision not to enforce follow as much but the way Indians approached the 2nd inning was bad. Rahul Dravid being a captain should have set the tone by rotating the strike at least. In fact he batted mostly against the likes of Monty and Collingwood. I expected better approach from him after having not enforced the follow on.

[Rajiv]

Yes, but at 11-3, you really can't start hitting around; in addition; gangs was ding the job at the other end

[gs]

^^Excuses/strategy/pressure not withstanding today's batting by Draw-id was one of the most inept, illogical and timid displays I have ever seen from a team which almost has the match in the bag!! Draw-id you sucked today!

[Cricketics]

What a shyt of an headline of that article by dailymail.. why didn't they also produce articles with such headlines on first 3 days with such wordz for eng team..

[Rajiv]

If India wins, their jobs wont be justified then. They can start individual wesites to write that garbage, better..send them to the OLD dump P.S Same media made Dravid the WALL

[Chandan]

I'm not worried about the decision not to enforce follow as much but the way Indians approached the 2nd inning was bad. Rahul Dravid being a captain should have set the tone by rotating the strike at least. In fact he batted mostly against the likes of Monty and Collingwood. I expected better approach from him after having not enforced the follow on.

Ravi, For the first time, we had a cloud cover and new ball swinging all over, yesterday. This led to the dismissal of Karthik and Sachin who obviously were trying to play strokes rather than just defend. What would have happened has Dravid departed at the same score, making the scoreline read 11/4? Certainly we would not have got runs from Laxman and Dhoni either as it'd have been too difficult for them to handle the new ball!! Would you have been happy then?

[King]

Ravi, For the first time, we had a cloud cover and new ball swinging all over, yesterday. This led to the dismissal of Karthik and Sachin who obviously were trying to play strokes rather than just defend. What would have happened has Dravid departed at the same score, making the scoreline read 11/4? Certainly we would not have got runs from Laxman and Dhoni either as it'd have been too difficult for them to handle the new ball!! Would you have been happy then?

Strange you say that when you know he played over 15 overs all on his own but never showed any intent. Even in the end did he do any justice for having sticked around? What was his contribution? 12 runs in all. How much is it worth in the scheme of things? He did get out when needed to stay at the wicket don't you think. Right After Ganguly's dismissal he followed him. If he had played few shots meanwhile it will have only meant India had more runs on board. Either way it sounds just excuses after not enforcing follow on but sticking around for eternal without an aim.

[Chandan]

Strange you say that when you know he played over 15 overs all on his own but never showed any intent. Even in the end did he do any justice for having sticked around? What was his contribution? 12 runs in all. How much is it worth in the scheme of things? He did get out when needed to stay at the wicket don't you think. Right After Ganguly's dismissal he followed him. If he had played few shots meanwhile it will have only meant India had more runs on board. Either way it sounds just excuses after not enforcing follow on but sticking around for eternal without an aim.

He has struggled throughout the series, Ravi. And he was clearly struggling yesterday as well. Under those conditions, I suppose he did the best he could.

[King]

You are right he was woefully out of form. I've never seen him struggle to put away full tosses from spinners and half volleys outside the off stump. Still I reckon that is one knock I wouldn't want to remember.

[Raj]

Terrible innings from a man woefully out of form and confidence. I don't think he had a clear objective yesterday, apart from surviving... if you not going to enforce the follow on, you should at least follow a plan of action... he did neither...

[gator]

all u people supporting Dravid's snail rate cos the score was 11/3, a question for u.... are u saying, if he took any run, he would get out??? wow....

[beetle]

No gator...he is just hopelessly out of form and he couldn't score. He most likely wanted to score while keeping his wicket intact(which was also the need of the hour that time)....he just couldn't do both .That's all.

[talksport]

If he is out of form.....What about his first innings....A glorious cameo? He went into a shell and rightly so....The situation demanded it. Sad he couldnt come out of it and Ganguly compensated for it.

[yoda]

blasting an indian skip after a rare overseas series win - i guess there is always a first time for everything. :giggle:

[veer]

blasting an indian skip after a rare overseas series win - i guess there is always a first time for everything. :giggle:

thats a different matter.. we Indians get satisfied very easily.. thank god for rain and dhoni that we saved 1st test.. otherwise it would have been tied series.. 664 in first inning.. and with 330 runs lead in 2nd inning and you still end the match in draw.. thats just NOT RIGHT dude..

[beetle]

>>>we Indians get satisfied very easily.. thank god for rain and dhoni that we saved 1st test.. otherwise it would have been tied series.. nah....if that had been the case then the team would have gone all out to win this one. The defensive play is only because a series win here is coming after such a long time.They just want to be sure.

[Gambit]

Hard to disagree with this article. Of course, it's been a fantastic series win for us and people should STFU now about us not doing well away from home. HOWEVER, Dravid's pathetic batting and ultra defensive mindset from 4th day on does sour the victory a tad.