NEW DELHI: Former India captain Rahul Dravid not too long ago shared his reminiscences of a outstanding partnership with VVS Laxman through the Adelaide Check towards Australia in 2003.
Chatting with Star Sports activities, Dravid mentioned how their 303-run partnership for the fifth wicket shifted the sport in India’s favour. India had a tough begin, however the partnership helped them safe a historic four-wicket victory.
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Dravid admitted that his dedication through the innings stemmed from a sense of guilt. He had run out captain Sourav Ganguly, leaving India struggling at 85/4. This was in response to Australia’s large first-innings complete of 556.
“I used to be pondering, ‘I’ve acquired the captain run-out. I higher do one thing significant.’ It was completely my mistake getting Sourav run-out. I’ll come clean with that one – it was my mistake,” Dravid mentioned.
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Dravid recounted that their focus through the partnership with Laxman was solely on rebuilding the innings.
“You are simply making an attempt to bat, you are simply making an attempt to construct a partnership, you are simply making an attempt to get to the goal. 556 is a big rating. You are simply making an attempt to sew collectively a partnership; we have misplaced 4 wickets, and also you’re simply making an attempt to consider getting shut and batting collectively,” Dravid defined.
Dravid and Laxman had a historical past of profitable partnerships. Essentially the most well-known one was their 376-run stand towards Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001. Additionally they shared a considerable partnership throughout a home sport between South Zone and West Zone. Dravid emphasised how their totally different batting types complemented one another.
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“The factor with Laxman and me is that we had batted collectively in a few actually large partnerships earlier than that. We did it as soon as in Kolkata in 2001 and even in a home sport once we first performed South Zone towards West Zone – we had a very large partnership. So we had form of batted rather a lot collectively and constructed this partnership,” Dravid mentioned.
Dravid acknowledged the pleasure of batting with Laxman. He admired Laxman’s elegant batting type and the way it contrasted along with his personal method.
“It is at all times good batting with Laxman as effectively, proper? As a result of he is only a lovely participant to look at and such a stunning participant. He actually attacked again, which, in some methods, complemented me fairly effectively in how we went about our innings,” he added.
Dravid’s rating of 233 and Laxman’s 148 propelled India to a first-innings complete of 523. This laid the groundwork for his or her eventual victory. Within the second innings, Dravid remained unbeaten on 72 as India chased down the goal of 230 with 4 wickets remaining. Laxman additionally contributed a fast 32 runs from 34 balls within the second innings.
