India of to fine start

Mumbai: To everybody’s surprise Rahul Dravid walked in along with Sachin Tendulkar to open the innings after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat in the Compaq Cup final. The duo provided a fine start, scoring 55 runs in 11 overs.

Dravid (22) started in style, square driving Nuwan Kulasekara to the fence. However, he later decided to drop anchor and allowed his partner to go after the bowlers. Sachin (33) was in sublime form.

He played some magnificent cover drives, forcing captain Kumar Sangakarra to put a fielder each at short cover and short extra cover. In one Kulasekara’s over, he played a majestic off-drive to the fence and followed it with a wristy flick, dissecting the short mid-wicket and mid-on, to the boundary. He scored 10 off the over.

For India to put a score above 250, one of the batsmen has to drop anchor and try and stay till the end.