The Hindu : Sport : I exceeded my expectations, says Dravid

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I exceeded my expectations, says Dravid

Sports Reporter

— Photo: AFP

THOROUGHLY TESTED: Dale Steyn, who is used to seamer-friendly pitches in South Africa, found it a different experience in Chennai.

Chennai: Rahul Dravid said he’d exceeded his career expectations, after reaching 10,000 Test runs. “It is a proud moment. Growing up I dreamt of playing for India. When I look back I exceeded my expectations with what I have done over the last 10-12 years. I can look back and reflect that I maximised my potential over these years. To do it here with my family and friends watching was great. It is very special.

“I can picture Gavaskar now, late cutting in Ahmedabad and raising his bat for his 10,000. I never had an ambition to do it, because I never believed. As a young kid, to be honest, I didn’t have the self-belief. I always dreamt of playing for India. It is just a reflection of my longevity in the game.”

In control

Dravid was happy with his innings, and said he felt in control. “I felt solid and in control of the innings. The South Africans bowled well, tighter lines and also got the ball to reverse swing today. I think I just felt happy I was solid and in control right through the innings.”

On not scoring a century for nearly a year, he said, “I pretty much coasted for the last five-six years through my career. I had to work pretty hard from 9000 to 10000. In some ways, it was a sign for me to learn to enjoy these things, learn to reflect on these moments. In some ways, the last 1000 has been a learning curve for me.

“It has been a tough year in some ways. I have been playing well in patches. I guess you go through this phase. It is part and parcel of playing cricket. I set high standards for myself and I’ve been fighting through it. I felt in phases it was coming back, when I broke my finger in the last game at Adelaide.

“I was completely off for six weeks. I picked up the bat two or three days before the Deodhar game. I got a couple of good scores, a hundred, a fifty. I came into this Test feeling really good.”

Different experience

South African fast-bowler Dale Steyn said it was a different experience bowling in the sub-continent. “It’s difficult bowling here. One thing is that the pitch doesn’t assist you much and we are not used to the balls that we use here; it gets scuffed up pretty quickly due to the pitch.

“So it is a whole new experience. I thought we bowled well, bowled good lines, good lengths. There were times when India batted well and it looked like they were taking the game away from us but today we definitely had the upperhand. We learnt a lot from yesterday and we executed a lot better today.

“Bowling to Sehwag you always felt that you had a chance the way he was playing. Yesterday, every shot he tried came off. He batted unbelievably well and we respect that. When bowling to Dravid we had an idea that if we gave Sehwag a single, we can try to bowl five dot balls to Dravid if we set the field correctly and bowl well enough.

“They both are good players and at the end of the day Dravid also got a hundred, he batted well too. It was a tough deck to bowl on and they batted well.”

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