Congrats Dravid !!

Dravid... a true enigma he is.. Ask any aspiring batsman what his dream is and invariably he would say "To win Man-of-the-match award for scoring match-winning hundred against test-playing nations." But, can you believe that Dravid could realize this dream only today, 10 years after he made his one-day debut? Nevertheless, his innings was a superb one.. one of the best by Indians recently.. Contradictory to his awards in the test arena, he was always a perfect bridesmaid in onedayers until recently.. Among the four different colored criteria, remove one and you can find enough instances of his reaching three of them, before today's match.

1) Remove red:
He has scored 5 match-winning hundreds against test-playing nations. But, in those matches, either his teammate or someone from the opposition played a blinding three-figure knock to get the man-of-the-match award, the latest one being Sehwag. Saurav did so twice and Sachin, Gayle and Sehwag have done it once each.

2) Remove blue:
He was awarded man-of-the-match award once for scoring hundred in a losing cause - against New Zealand in Taupo (1999). That match was a classic example of how stupid the trans-tasman cricket administrators think when they used to define their own rules for rain-affected matches. The match was evenly poised when NZ, chasing 258 under lights, were 168/3 in the 31st over. They had just lost a wicket and they required 90 off 116 balls. Then, boom... the lights went off.. it took a good 50 minutes for them to come back, by which 11 overs were "lost". Surely Duckworth-Lewis would have set a stiff target, but the NZ cricket board had their own rule, which is just based on simple run-rate.. which meant the revised target was 200 in 39 overs - another 32 off the 50 remaining balls. How ridiculous!! NZ lost Chris Cairns the next over after the play resumed and before victory, they lost Harris also. Who knows what would have happened with more sensible rule.. After the match, Sunny Gavaskar commented that the rule was ridiculous.. the home team can "turn-off" the light for convenient-enough time to menacingly reduce the target.. and then he said he just joked..

3) Remove green:
He has won man-of-the-match award on many occasions for his match-winning two-figure knocks against test-playing nations. Interestingly, most of them have come away from home.

4) Remove purple:
In 2004, he scored a good match-winning hundred against minnows UAE and was awarded the man-of-the match award.