It is interesting how two great stonewalling batsmen of the modern era, Rahul Dravid & Jacques Kallis, could find themselves in a very similar positions for their respective teams in the next two days of test cricket. I wonder if one.....or even both of them could come out on top?

Dravid has failed yet again and I believe this is the beginning of the end for him.

I am sure Kallis's situation will be different because he is playing at "home" and that against a relatively friendly bowling attack of the WIndies.

I am beginning to agree. 21 runs in the match from 180 balls in 258 minutes! Maybe he fell asleep at the wicket on occasion.

While defending can be very useful on many occasions, it can turn into a self-defeating exercise if it becomes excessive. The negative atmosphere can transmit itself to rest of the team, upset the other players' thoughts & rhythm and contribute to a general loss of confidence. Maybe that's what happened at the MCG.

I think he would have wanted to score at least 50 in a worst case scenario from that many balls and preferably 80-100.

The days of the great stonewall opening batsmen eg: Tavere, Boycott, Lawry, Gavaskar..etc were the days prior to covered test wickets and reverse swing.

I think nowadays the opening period is regarded as one of the best periods to score runs, with a hard ball coming off a hard pitch onto the bat. Also with the feild often up.