Ind Bang T 2: The SRT-RD (Sachin Tendulkar- Rahul Dravid) Partnership !

Sreelata YellamrazuJan 26 2010

by Gaurav Vartak

Virender Sehwag was right. It was turning out to be a rather ordinary series. The only day of excitement was the first day when Bangladesh had India on their knees. But thanks to Sachin Tendulkar, and some pretty shoddy performance by the Bangladesh team in the second innings, India managed to pull off a rather facile victory.

rahul dravid sachin tendulkar

If nothing else, this series has provided the Indian team to rack up some records. Gautam Gambhir, for instance, had equaled Viv Richards’ record of 11 fifties in 11 consecutive Tests. He stands perilously close to Sir Don Bradman’s record with 5 consecutive centuries.

There was another record that was created on the second day of the Mirpur Test; one that went largely unnoticed. Maybe it was because the two principal characters involved in the record are so used to creating monumental records that this one was but a footnote in their illustrious career.

This is of course in reference to Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and their magnificent 222 run partnership that helped India get a firm grip over this second test. It was a typical Sachin-Rahul partnership with Dravid holding one end firm while Sachin milked the bowling from the other end, and finally upped the ante with some shots to the fence.

While Dravid’s innings was like wave, alternating between dominating and being quiet, Sachin’s innings resembled the stock market in its heydays – rising steadily, getting more and more risky but still a treat to sore eyes. Both got some reprieves from the opposition of course – with Dravid dropped once and Sachin twice.

But the experienced campaigners that they are, these two veterans of Indian cricket made sure that Bangladesh would rue the missed opportunities.

For those who are statistical minded, this was the 17th century partnership between these two – another world record for the gentle giants of Indian cricket. They were previously tied with the West Indies pair of Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes and Australian pair Matthew Hayden-Ricky Ponting. And looking at their current form they look far from finished; beware South Africa! For more than a decade, these two have been manning the number three and four positions respectively for India, and looking at this recent piece of statistic it must be said that they haven’t done too bad a job.

One last piece of statistic before signing off. It seems that Sachin Tendulkar can’t really make any runs these days without creating a record. This double century partnership between these two was the 15th such partnership that Sachin was involved; equaling Ricky Ponting’s record. With the Australian batting not looking in the kind of shape it used to be, Sachin certainly has a great chance of going past the Aussie great.

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