Laxman’s city of joy

The ball sped to the boundary,bringing up a third consecutive century for the right-hander at his favourite venue and the 10,000-odd in the audience let out a roar in unison. It,however,did take a few more seconds for Sammy to recover from the daze.

There was no respite at the other end either. If Laxman was essaying a master-class,his batting partner was producing unbridled mayhem with his blazing blade. The ball was flying to all parts of the Eden Gardens — up and over too on occasions.

With his top and middle order having set up the perfect platform possible,Mahendra Singh Dhoni had started off on fourth gear and had now stepped up even further on the gas. The Indian captain,who smashed a thrill-a-minute 144,might not have been as pleasant on the eye as his senior partner,but it didn’t matter. And neither was he trying to be.

But if Day One was all about Rahul Dravid,Tuesday belonged entirely to the Laxman-Dhoni duo as they put on a spectacular 224-run stand to push India to 631/7 declared.

And by stumps on a day curtailed frequently due to bad light,the bowlers had already sent back the West Indian openers,handing complete control of the second Test to the hosts.

True entertainers

Both Laxman and Dhoni are entertainers in their own right. One does it with finesse like a trained artist,while the other is abstract in his style. Dhoni regales in a more blatant fashion. He clubs and cudgels,and isn’t shy of manufacturing shots.

He thumps fours and sixes aplenty-five on Tuesday-and keeps the crowd on their feet,regardless of the format. It doesn’t matter whether he lacks grace while he does it. Dhoni has proved that few can be as effective as him.

Everything about Laxman,however,is a piece of art. From the way he curls his wrists to the manner in which he swivels around to play a pull-shot or even his delectable late-cut,played fluently to both pace and spin. It’s like watching a puppeteer in action. It’s hardly complicated. And it can often seem too good to be true.

When it comes to Dhoni,he can be forgiven for not looking pretty. With Laxman in contrast,it’s not often the runs but how he scores them that matters. And after Yuvraj Singh fell to Sammy after an uncomfortable and ungainly stay at the crease,the West Indians could only watch in despair as Laxman and Dhoni compounded their already beleaguered hopes with two characteristic and destructive knocks.

Laxman was all class throughout his innings,starting from his overnight score of 74. There were a couple of inside-edges that went narrowly near his leg-stump. But nothing it seems can go wrong for him in Kolkata,at as far as his batting is concerned,and he continued in his serene fashion to bring up his first Test century since his heroic fourth-innings effort at the P’Sara Oval in August 2010. He now has scored more runs than any other Indian batsman on a particular ground.

The players went off the field briefly before lunch after dark clouds encompassed the Eden Gardens-astonishingly since it was still before 11 in the morning. The West Indies bowlers were hardly provided a sighter thereafter-and probably they would have hoped the light remained dim — as Dhoni in particular returned in a destructive mood. He smashed 146 runs off his own bat in the second session of play,as India piled on 180.

With Laxman and Dhoni having pummeled the visitors into submission in their own contrasting styles,it does look inevitable that there might be no light at the end of the tunnel for the West Indians in Kolkata.