When Dravid shows some dark humour..

By John Cheeran
It is no secret that everyone in the Royal Challenge camp is frustrated with the way things have gone against them in the IPL.
Rahul Dravid, a normally unflappable fellow even when faced with grave provocations, lost his cool when his co-cricketers again came up with a feckless performance against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. On a day when not even Mr Vijay Mallya’s choice Misbah-ul Haq could bring alive the scoreboard, Dravid showed some dark humour by belting sixer after sixer in an all-lost cause, including grace and honour.
At least, as a captain and a professional, Dravid redeemed himself to a great extent by that nonchalant innings.
Dravid’s innings (unbeaten 75 from 36 balls with six sixers and six boundaries) against Shane Warne’s side was nothing but ‘the rage, rage against the dying of the light.’
Through that blast in Jaipur, Dravid was sending out a strong message to those critics who had questioned his conditioning to live up to the challenges thrown up by the Twenty20 version of cricket. Dravid showed that while still holding on to all the fundamentals of batting, you still can have some fun.
Dravid, the classical batsman par excellence, did not resort to gross or tantalizing improvisations to succeed but played what could be described as proper strokes. Not a slap of the ball Dravid attempted during his defiant innings.
It was significant that while at other end, his team mates played outrageous strokes to get themselves out but each time the ball went up in the air, Dravid did not cross over, as part of that custom to protect the newcomer.
It only showed how disgusted Dravid has become as captain at the irresponsible ways of the merry makers that he had picked in the first place.