It's Dravid's day as India grind Zimbabwean bowling

The third day’s play was hardly a battle between bat and ball. It wasmore of an exhibition on how the willow should be wielded. From ShivSunder Das to Rahul Dravid to Sachin Tendulkar there was no joy forZimbabwe. The only saving grace was the fact that Das is playing justhis second Test match, and therefore was a bit more reserved than wasreally necessary. On the other hand, neither Rahul Dravid nor SachinTendulkar exhibited any shyness. If anything, Rahul Dravid was moreforceful than ever. It was a big day for the young man. He not onlynotched up his seventh Test hundred, but also crossed the milestone of3000 runs in the longer version of the game. In doing so, he propelledIndia to a strong position of 275/2 at stumps on the third day of thefirst Test at the Kotla on Monday. John Wright said earlier that hecould not work any magic. If he can inspire Dravid to approach thegame as he did, no miracles will be needed.Resuming on nine for no loss, openers Sadagoppan Ramesh and Das madeyet another beginning. Having safely played out the few overs on offerthe previous day, the openers once again set their sights on posting agood response. This however, wasn’t to be. Ramesh played all over aquick straight ball from Heath Streak and was trapped plumb in front.This brought Dravid and Das together. Assuming a role not usuallyassociated with him, Dravid was the aggressor even as Das playedquietly and solidly at one end.A flurry of boundaries from the blade of the Karnataka stylist’s batsaw the pair push the scoring rate. Henry Olonga did the Zimbabweancause no good by bowling all over the place. Striving for pace, Olongawas in turns either too full or too short. Either way, the result wasthe same, the ball being dispatched to the fence with disdain.After making a good half century, Das too found himself trapped legbefore. Perhaps this was the only time in the day when Olonga landedthe ball in the right place. Das had impressed in his knock of 58.Striking the ball hard for a man his size, the Orissa opener sent theball to the fence six times.The large crowd roared as Sachin Tendulkar walked out to the middle.To an Indian crowd there will never be anyone closer to the heart thanTendulkar. When he made his way to the middle, Dravid already had awell made 58 to his credit. And yet, the roars that greeted Tendulkarwas deafening. Dravid certainly cornered his fair share of theapplause in the overs that ensued. Tendulkar started off a bittentatively, by his high standards anyway. Not timing the ballperfectly, and a bit anxious running between the wickets, Tendulkarmoved cautiously on.Dravid was never troubled. The Zimbabwe captain rotated his bowlersaround as much as was effective, but none could trouble Dravid. Takinga leaf out of the Zimbabweans’ book, he used the sweep at will againstthe spinners. Even going down the wicket when the ball was given a bitof air brought success for Dravid. However, he was truly magnificentagainst the mediumpacers. When the bowling was a tad short, or wideenough to allow him to open his shoulders, Dravid rocked onto his backfoot and crashed the ball away. Peppering the ropes in all parts ofthe ground, Dravid cut and pulled in domineering fashion.While Dravid marched on, Tendulkar too found his golden touch andZimbabwe’s misery was complete. Playing copybook shots, the maestropresented the full face of his very heavy bat to anything that wasbowled at him. Taking three consecutive boundaries off Olonga,Tendulkar raised the level of batsmanship to a very high standard.The second new ball was taken just as the day was coming to a close.It hardly made any difference to the Indians. When the umpires tookthe players off the field, Tendulkar had made a solid unbeaten 70 (164balls, 10 fours), even as Dravid had 118 of the finest runs to hiscredit. Although he didn’t hit a single ball over the ropes, his 17boundaries went a long way in demoralising the Zimbabweans. At 275/2with VVS Laxman and skipper Ganguly yet to come, India are sittingpretty in this Test match. The Zimbabwean bowlers will have to pull uptheir socks in a hurry if they are going to trouble India’s batsmen.The bowling section of the scoreboard was a pathetic sight… if youare a Zimbabwean. Olonga went for 51 runs in 14 overs, Paul Strangconceded 40 from 13 overs and Murphy in turn was ineffective enough togive away over 50 runs from his 20-odd overs.