Dravid, the bulwark of all rescue acts

Rahul Dravid is known to have the courteous habit of interrupting an interview, take off his sponsor's cap, and boyishly tuck it under his arm as he politely address a teammate's wife.

He is also the sort of batsman whose rueful smile after fashioning a match-winning boundary through a classic cover-drive off Brett Lee, explains he understands the bowler's angst.

Yet who is it that India needed to rely on when they are in deep trouble and scrambling for a Plan B to dig their way out of a messy hole? Why that bulwark of all rescue acts, it is The Wall; only Dravid is always the Plan A option, never plan B. Classy and classic, he makes others look mundane as he rebuilds an innings with care and attention.

Typically, it is hard to define just how much India owe The Wall yet again with this carefully constructed salvaging operation at Motera on day one of this first Test against Sri Lanka. All they had to do is look at the scoreboard and read the bare statistics: India, 385 for six, Dravid 177 not out and 11,000 Test runs to his credit in what has been an almost blemish free innings.

After all, this was supposed to be Sachin Tendulkar's big day and a sizeable crowd had turned up on a working day in the hope of seeing him in action at some stage. This was after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first.

It seemed to be a good call as well. Even the early loss of Gautam Gambhir, which was a batsman's error and at by the end of the third over, Sri Lanka were smiling. But the start of the seventh over it changed the whole story. Left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara trapped Virender Sehwag in front; three balls and a boundary later the horror show of the morning as Tendulkar was bowled through the sort of gap you could sail the INS aircraft carrier Viraat through, blowing a hole in the Indian defences with its guns blazing.

When Vangipurappu Laxman went for a duck with Dammika Prasad getting in on the act and inside the first hour the top-order save one was standing, memories of the South African rout of April 2008 loomed where the side as blown away for 76.

There was nothing really wrong with the pitch, just some good smart seam and swing bowling by the Chaminda Vaas replacement. For days Sri Lanka and their media have been promoting this series as the one where they will end the jinx of not having won a Test in India. Even former Indian captain turned TV commentator mentioned the 20 overs rout by South Africa at this venue, even if he had some of his facts wrong.

Anil Kumble won the toss as did Dhoni and elected to bat. But instead of a last man standing to repair the wreckage on that occasion, there was nothing but agony for India.

This time, however, the Dravid salvage operation was a carefully worked reconstruction job as his calm and impressive approach left Sri Lanka wondering what had gone wrong. They were unable to continue with the pressure as The Wall went to work, picking off runs and exuding the type of expertise missing in the limited overs side against Australia. The way he worked with Yuvraj Singh was again an example of the senior professional doing the job for which he is known.

The end result in century partnerships with Yuvraj and Dhoni (scoring a much-needed second Test century) saw India scoring 353 off 82.2 overs at a run rate that was in excess of four an over and as good as you would find in any limited overs show.

Along with passing the 11,000 run-mark at Test level, Dravid's batting average moved up a notch or two as a way to explain that not all is lost. The Wall is back and that is all India needed to rescue their faltering start to the series.