India v England: scoreboard and stats I Mike Atherton's analysis

IN picking James Anderson ahead of Steve Harmison in their starting XI, England were following the strict logic of the form book.

Anderson's record against India - an impressive 20 wickets in four games before Chennai - was simply too persuasive to be ignored. If the ball swung, he was their best chance of making swift inroads, which is what they needed if they were to snatch a series-levelling win.

One of those Indians against whom Anderson had done well in the past was Rahul Dravid, a man who must never be underestimated. Dravid had been going through a lean patch - eight innings without a fifty, 19 innings without a hundred - but his masters clearly retained faith in him. Only this week, the Indian board announced its new round of contracts and Dravid remained in the top band.

Gary Kirsten, India's coach, was himself a patient accumulator in the Dravid mould. He wasn't going to want to hurry to get rid of the most prolific number three batsman Test cricket has ever since.

For all that, Dravid was desperately anxious for a score here. At practice the day before the game, the Indian batsmen were all smiles, happy and relaxed after their great run-chase in Chennai. All except Dravid that is, who sat alone after his session, frowning into the distance. It is all very well having a vote of confidence from the Indian board; he still needed to get the public and press off his back.

Of course, Dravid came up trumps here, blocking England's path as imposingly as any Punjab sentry in possession of a large moustache, a rifle and a due sense of his own importance. With Gautam Gambhir in the form of his life, the two of them held firm for 70 of the day's 72 overs and between them as good as closed the door on England's aspirations.

But it could have been very different. Dravid used to be one of the surest starters in the game. A Dravid Test duck is a real collector's item, there having been only seven of them in 211 innings. Yet here, no sooner had he come in than he endured a torrid over from Stuart Broad: he was beaten by the second ball, and nearly lbw to the fourth. When he did finally make a run, it was from a frantic single that could easily have caused a run-out.

Broad then tormented him further but it was Anderson who was to cause him the biggest scare. Dropping the ball slightly short, Anderson was inviting the pull, and Dravid duly accepted it. But, in his rustiness, it was more of a hopeful swish than anything and the ball spiralled up sickeningly off the top edge. On another day, it would have fallen to hand, but Dravid's was long overdue some luck and it dropped between two fielders. He scrambled through for his second run and, off strike, had time to regain composure.

England could have bowled better in seaming conditions before lunch but they did enough to make batting a demanding business. Andrew Flintoff kept up the pressure but gradually Dravid found some fluency and timing and by the time he was past 30 was unleashing some of the sweetest strokes imaginable, clips off his legs and drives threaded through packed off-side fields.

Even England must have felt some pleasure on his behalf that his nightmare run was at an end. It was after the last series between the teams in England in 2007 that Dravid stepped down as captain because the responsibility was affecting his form.

Watching Dravid bat remains an occupation for the connoisseur. Unlike Virender Sehwag, he pays the bowler due respect at all times and by the time he walked off, with 65 to his name, it was hard not to calculate what Sehwag might have scored had he and not Dravid batted for 205 balls. The answer was 160. Oh well.

It would be no surprise if this now turned into a full Dravid marathon, hour upon hour of monk-like devotion to the business crushing English hopes. If Anderson was the man to play against India, Dravid was the man to bat at Mohali. His scores here against England are 86, 95, 42 not out and now 65 not out. But Dravid will be conscious that he has never made a hundred against England on home soil. That might be about to change