Top 5 T20 innings by Rahul Dravid

When pacer Chris Morris sent Rahul Dravid‘s stumps cartwheeling during the first semi final of the 2013 Champions League Twenty20, the spectators groaned more out of fear that this may have been the Indian legend’s final innings of a glittering career.

The joyous celebrations after the Rajasthan Royals pulled off a thrilling win must have come as a relief to them – their hero will live to fight another day.

By his own admission, Dravid reckons Twenty20 cricket is a youngster’s game. It is also why he opted out of the Indian squad for the 2007 World T20 championships, and steadily declined the selection to further editions until his international retirement in 2012.

Still, he has played quite a few valiant innings in the shortest format, especially in the Indian Premier League, and has done reasonably well on those occasions.

Here is a list of five of his best knocks in Twenty20 cricket:

5.  31 runs off 21 balls (India vs England, Manchester, August 31, 2011)

With players like skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in the ranks, one would have expected the towering sixes to come off the blade of any one of these young turks, or at least the first six of the game, if not a torrent.

The huge hits did arrive – but the first one of the game came, quite surprisingly, off Dravid’s bat. And incredibly, three huge hits followed.

Left-arm spinner Samit Patel, the rest of the English squad and even the Indians were stunned; after all, Dravid wasn’t known to hit sixes with increasing regularity. Yet, he did so with aplomb.

The first one was a swat over long on, but the second came off a straight bat. He finished the over with a powerful sweep over deep square leg that carried the ball into the stands. This was to be Dravid’s first and only T20 international innings, lasting barely 23 minutes, and for 21 deliveries, but it did propel India to a defendable target.

However, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara, backed by Jade Dernbach’s four-wicket haul, ensured that India ended the game second-best. Terrific stuff from Dravid, though!