Rahul Dravid en route to his 61 in Chittagong on Friday

Chittagong: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly took India to a position of strength, helping Team India finish Day I of the first Test against Bangladesh at 295 for three on Friday.

The veteran duo, under pressure following India’s World Cup debacle, came out with a befitting reply to the Doubting Thomases with a sparkling unbeaten 163-run partnership that might effectively block any escape route for the hosts in the long run. Sachin was batting on 80 (137 balls, 4x7) and Sourav on 82 (132 balls, 4x10, 6x2) and the pair has already hinted at greater things to come.

The Indian thinktank put their selection quandary to rest on Friday morning itself, taking the tough decision of leaving out senior pros Yuvraj Singh and V.V.S. Laxman and going in with five bowlers, a move hugely influenced by the flat nature of the wicket. It also meant India’s plan was predominantly on putting on a huge total so that the pressure was right there on the hosts.

Despite Wasim Jaffer's first-ball duck, Rahul Dravid (61) and Dinesh Karthik (56), included as a specialist batsman, were on course of achieving the goal. But they perished in quick succession with centuries theirs to miss.

Just when pressure seemed to have gripped Dravid & Co. on a batting beauty, two evergreen masters of the game took the centrestage and provided a timely balm over the crisis. There is still a lot of work to be done, keeping in mind unpredictability is the name of the game. But the Sachin-Sourav stand showed assurance of providing the base for India’s killer punch in the game.

Dravid did a world of good for his team by winning the toss and electing to bat. Jaffer and Karthik came out to launch the innings. It was the Mumbai batsman who took the strike and came in a for a huge shock while facing Mashrafe Mortaza. The ball was pitched a touch outside the off-stump and Jaffer committed a fatal misjudgement, moving forward but offering no shot. The ball nipped back sharply and disturbed his off-stump.

Bangladesh’s joy was shortlived as Dravid and Karthik pegged back the balance of power in their favour in no time. The duo tore the hosts’ ambitions to pieces with a festival of boundaries all around the park. Habibul Bashar was forced to fall back on the veteran spinner Mohammed Rafique in the 11th over but the run flow was on the ascendancy.

Bashar’s ploy of drafting in three left-arm spinners — which brought them recent successes in ODIs, also backfired.

Dravid and Karthik headed to the dressing room for lunch with a quickfire 113-run stand with dark clouds hovering overhead. Rain finally came and delayed the scheduled resumption for an hour. It was bright and sunny day again but gloom descended on the Indian camp soon. Karthik was first to go, being unable to negotiate a rising delivery from Mortaza. His captain departed two overs later.

It was another short-pitched ball, from Shahadat Hossain. Dravid, who pulled the bowler with utter disdain earlier, tried to do the same. But the ball moved a tad towards him after hitting the deck and he ended up nicking it to the wicketkeeper Khaled Masud. Truly, a premature end to the promise of a bigger knock.

Bangladesh were sniffing at a possible coup, but Sachin and Sourav reminded them of the illusion they were living in.

On Sourav’s arrival, Bashar immediately applied mind game on the batsman, placing a forward short-leg and Shahdat, inarguably the day’s best bowler, greeted him with a barrage of bouncers.

Sourav opened his account with a typically cover-driven four off Enamul Haq (junior) and since then, he was always at ease in the face of Bashar’s continuous reshuffling of bowlers. The former captain grew in confidence as time wore on. He then transformed himself from the workmanalike to the spectacular with two straight sixes off Rafique.

On the other hand, Sachin, barring a close leg-before appeal from Rafique and a difficult chance behind the wicket, was a mix of determination and calculation. He drove and slashed imperiously particularly around the arc from backward point to mid-off.

Will such magic, or may be something bigger, from the duo continue? You will have the answer on Saturday.