Top 5 T20 innings by Rahul Dravid

When pacer Chris Morris sent Rahul Dravid‘s stumps cartwheeling during the first semi final of the 2013 Champions League Twenty20, the spectators groaned more out of fear that this may have been the Indian legend’s final innings of a glittering career.

The joyous celebrations after the Rajasthan Royals pulled off a thrilling win must have come as a relief to them – their hero will live to fight another day.

By his own admission, Dravid reckons Twenty20 cricket is a youngster’s game. It is also why he opted out of the Indian squad for the 2007 World T20 championships, and steadily declined the selection to further editions until his international retirement in 2012.

Still, he has played quite a few valiant innings in the shortest format, especially in the Indian Premier League, and has done reasonably well on those occasions.

Here is a list of five of his best knocks in Twenty20 cricket:

5. 31 runs off 21 balls (India vs England, Manchester, August 31, 2011)

With players like skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in the ranks, one would have expected the towering sixes to come off the blade of any one of these young turks, or at least the first six of the game, if not a torrent.

The huge hits did arrive – but the first one of the game came, quite surprisingly, off Dravid’s bat. And incredibly, three huge hits followed.

Left-arm spinner Samit Patel, the rest of the English squad and even the Indians were stunned; after all, Dravid wasn’t known to hit sixes with increasing regularity. Yet, he did so with aplomb.

The first one was a swat over long on, but the second came off a straight bat. He finished the over with a powerful sweep over deep square leg that carried the ball into the stands. This was to be Dravid’s first and only T20 international innings, lasting barely 23 minutes, and for 21 deliveries, but it did propel India to a defendable target.

However, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara, backed by Jade Dernbach’s four-wicket haul, ensured that India ended the game second-best. Terrific stuff from Dravid, though!

4. 52 runs off 35 balls (Royal Challengers v/s KKR, IPL 2010)

After an inspired bowling effort led by R Vinay Kumar, the Royal Challengers got off to a rather poor start with Jacques Kallis falling early in the chase.

However, Dravid, who had had a quiet season till then, showed how the conventional batting also had its place in the rapid-scoring version of cricket as he relied more on timing than raw power to find the fence with ease.

He struck Ishant Sharma for three fours in a single over, and even tonked a couple of huge sixes off Ajit Agarkar. In the process, The Wall duly recorded his first half century of the season before holing out off Angelo Matthews.

Brutal knocks from Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor ensured that the Men in Red emerged winners by seven wickets, but more importantly, Dravid’s cool approach helped to get their IPL campaign back on track.

3. 66 runs off 51 balls (Rajasthan Royals v/s Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2011)

For all his efforts in the sweltering heat of Chennai, the veteran batsman just couldn’t nudge his side to a total that would be considered threatening against the Yellow Brigade. Despite a strong platform, his side just couldn’t capitalize on it, and Dhoni’s side ran out comfortable winners.

Making first use of the wicket, Dravid and Shane Watson got the side off to a steady start, with the former picking the gaps at will and running like a 20-year old between the wickets.

Rahul then took charge once the spinner arrived; he pulled Ashwin to the mid-wicket fence twice, then reverse-swept and punched SL off-spinner Suraj Randiv for three fours to different areas of the ground.

Easily the shot of the innings was his inside-out drive over extra cover off the left-arm spin of Shadab Jakati.

But none of his other teammates could keep the momentum going, and Mike Hussey and Suresh Raina set up a comfortable victory without breaking too much of a sweat – literally!

2. 65 runs off 51 balls (Rajasthan Royals v/s Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2013)

He was slower off the blocks in this knock, but it was all that held the entire batting order together against the Daredevils at the treacherous Ferozeshah Kotla ground in April 2013.

Coming in at the fall of Kusal Perera in the third over, Dravid started off in a rather nervous fashion – he barely managed to control an edge off his first ball that ended up at the third man fence. He milked the singles, kept the scoreboard ticking, and punished the occasional bad delivery; just another regular day at the office.

Dravid also slammed a couple of huge sixes as he infused more aggression into his innings, one of which was actually a dropped chance that ended up in the stands. The second massive hit came off an Irfan Pathan slower ball, before Umesh Yadav removed the veteran batsman, triggering a mini-collapse towards the end of the innings.

An attempted catch off a David Warner top edge resulted in the skipper leaving the field with a back strain, and under Brad Hodge’s sensible command, Rajasthan ended up winning the game by a narrow margin of five runs – Dravid received the Player of the Match award.

1. 75* off 36 balls (Royal Challengers v/s Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2008)

Arguably, this was one of Jammy‘s greatest ever IPL innings till date, but it wasn’t enough to snap a losing streak as the Rajasthan Royals sealed their spot in the semi-finals with a thumping 65-run win over the Royal Challengers.

Chasing a daunting total of 198, Dravid saw his teammates fall like ninepins – four batsmen were back in the hut with only 31 runs on the board. He then proceeded to play a captain’s knock, unperturbed by the lack of support at the other end.

The highlights of his innings were the three monstrous sixes he struck off Yusuf Pathan, putting all doubts of his limited abilities in that aspect of the game to rest. However, the required run rate had ballooned up to alarming proportions, and the Bangalore skipper was faced with the hugely improbable task of getting 80 in the final over.

He finished with a flourish, hitting left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja for a four and a six, staying undefeated till the end. It didn’t help end a winless run, but it reminded critics that whatever the format, Dravid could adapt his game accordingly.