One of the best games I've been involved in: Dravid

MUMBAI: It was a rare moment, the kind of which you wouldn't associate with a 'gentleman' like Rahul Dravid with even in your dreams. On Sunday night at the Wankhede Stadium, however, Dravid showed that even the 'good guys' have emotions, and can 'lose the plot' once in a while. As soon as Mumbai Indians' keeper-bat Aditya Tare smashed a James Faulkner full toss into the crowd to seal the last remaining playoff spot for the defending champs, a disgusted Dravid, sitting in the Rajasthan Royals dug-out as the team mentor, flung his cap into the ground.For a second, perhaps, the great cricketer forgot all that he stands for-remaining calm in defeat or loss being foremost-as his pent up emotions came bursting out.
Dravid had reason to feel devastated. Just one ball earlier, he and his team were celebrating survival by a whisker. MI, everyone felt, were one run short of the 190-run target they needed to get in 14. 3 overs, as they were 189 for five when Ambati Rayudu was run out. It soon emerged though, that the hosts had another ball to play, in which they needed a boundary, and they eventually went through.
After the heart-breaking loss, the illustrious cricketer conceded that it was one of the best cricket matches he had been a part of. "We thought we had won the game at one stage. Then, we still had to bowl a ball and they hit the boundary so you can just imagine the emotions. There was sheer disappointment in their camp, joy in our camp and suddenly a ball later that's completely reversed. So for sheer emotion and drama, I think this was probably one of the best games of cricket I've been involved in. It's just disappointing that I happened to be on the wrong side of the result," he said.
Dravid's dejection stemmed from the way RR's bowlers allowed Corey Anderson and Ambati Rayudu to add 82 in 31 balls to script the incredible victory for MI. "At that stage, if you bowl a couple of seven, eight-run overs or 10-run overs, the game quickly goes out of hand. But they kept getting that 15, 16-run over. They just stayed in the game. When Rayudu and Anderson batted, there was a period of about 12 to 15 balls where we suddenly gave 50 runs. That was the critical phase where we could've maybe bowled a couple of better overs. The guys tried their best, but it's just not worked out for us," he summed up beautifully.
Dravid refused to accept the general feeling that the Royals took things far too easy and experimented way too much for their own good after they needed merely one win in their last three games to make it to the playoffs. "We knew we needed about 16 points to qualify. It's not that we were trying to say, 'Oh we've already qualified.' We were not trying to be arrogant at that stage. Even today, we made three changes in a must-win game. In the last match, we made three changes. We tried to play according to the situation," he justified. He clarified that prolific opener Ajinkya Rahane was dropped from the key game against MI in Ahmedabad because he injured. "If you noticed, he didn't field in the game before that. He was carrying an injury. We would have loved to have played him, but that is the nature of the situation," Dravid said.
Despite the disappointing exit, 'The Wall' felt the Royals had plenty of gains to gather from IPL 7. "There's a lot of positives from our season. It's the first year and we've always been saying that this is the first year of three. Sanju Samson and Karun Nair have been exceptional, while Ankit Sharma and Rahul Tewatia showed there is a potential for the future. Steven Smith showed that he is going to become a force to reckon with in the IPL," he said.