The Wall stands firm

In what has been a great turnaround for Rahul Dravid since the South Africa series early this year, he has notched up his 36th century on a placid track at the Eden Gardens. In the process, he became the highest scorer this calendar year, beating Ian Bell's tally of 950 runs .
Overall, the batting display, after MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat, was one that many would have predicted this team to deliver. However, most of the top-order will be ruing the missed opportunity to score big on this track, and the score could have been much bigger had they not fallen to soft dismissals.The Windies did themselves no favours in the first hour, where Fidel Edwards, a bowler capable of generating swing, was bowling more than 80% of his deliveries at a short of a length in conditions favouring swing due to the early start and moisture in the pitch. Though this tactic has worked for the Windies as recently as 2008 against this very same Indian line-up, today it just meant that the Indians were not troubled by swing in the first hour.
On the other end, Edwards' opening partner Darren Sammy, who took up the role due to the unavailability of Ravi Rampaul due to a stomach bug, leaked runs at around 9 runs per over, though he came back first ball after the drinks break to get the wicket of Sehwag. Sehwag, dominating in usual fashion, lost his wicket trying to force a slower ball over the mid-wicket region, ended up turning his bat face and giving a sitter to Adrian Barath.
The pair of Dravid and Gambhir matched the pace of the association between Sehwag and Gambhir by doubling the score for the loss of no wickets by Lunch. This was mostly due to the aggression shown by Dravid during the initial stages of the innings. After lunch, the Windies came back to bowl a more fuller length and this paid dividends in them tightening the scoring and getting Gambhir for a careless stroke to a ball that in normal circumstances should have been left well alone.
This meant that Tendulkar walked out to try and score his 100th international century in front of a now expectant nation, ready to burst into celebration. He started well and was in no real discomfort when he perished on 38, again trying to force the pace off a Bishoo delivery that did nothing untoward, warranting a dismissal.
But after this, it was plain sailing for two of India's most dependable, as Dravid and Laxman serenely went about accumulating runs at a good pace. Dravid was in such a positive mood that he hit two sixes, his 20th and 21st in tests, even when the close of play was no more than 20 minutes away. He maybe should have continued in the same vein as he was out defending back to a Braithwaite delivery, giving the Barbadian youngster his first Test wicket. West Indies struck back to pick up the nightwatchman Ishant Sharma on the last delivery of the day, to end a day that India could have dominated if it weren't for silly strokes,. Though with an average first innings score of 396 at the venue, and a new batsman fighting for his place in the squad and a longish tail to follow, West Indies might still be in the hunt in this Test match, provided they come up with a better performance than their first hour today.