Today, Sachin Tendulkar did something that he only did once in the 190 one-day internationals in which he opened for India: he was unbeaten at the end of India's 50 overs. India had the rare luxury of Tendulkar batting at the finish, and consequently scored 106 runs in the last 10 overs. Struggling at one stage at 52 for 3, they finished on a healthy total of 285, handling a crunch situation well for the third match in a row. What a knock Tendulkar played. He began circumspectly – relative to what one expects from him – but never fell below a strike-rate of 80. Even when the boundaries weren't coming, he was scampering singles, playing the ball with supple hands, placing it beautifully. And when the time came to shift up a gear, he did it with improvisatory flair, always in control of the situation. In the process, he won an important battle with Ashley Giles, who has continued in this series with the leg-stump line that he unveiled against Tendulkar in December. Old tricks don't work against an old warhorse like Tendulkar, who put Giles in his place with some stunning reverse sweeps, inside-out lofted cover-drives and mighty sweeps. This battle promises to be fascinating – and one-sided – if it reaches the Tests.

His century was a perfect illustration of the wisdom of moving the world's most prolific limited-overs batsman to No. 4 in the order. Top-heavy India have for long needed a finisher and not a starter, someone like a Michael Bevan who could play those crucial final overs well. The logic behind moving Tendulkar down the order was that the toughest job in the team should be done by the best man available, and Tendulkar, with his experience and cricketing intelligence, was the only man who fit that role.

And just as India turns a corner, Tendulkar could also be moving into a new phase of his one-day career. There have been three phases before this, each more valuable to his team than the last. First, the young middle-order talent not quite sure of how to approach the limited-overs game. Then, the slam-bang opener who would blast away in the first 15 overs. Third, the more responsible opening batsman, who would play his strokes in the first 15 but also try to play the long innings for his team. And now this, the middle-order batsman who will finish matches for his side.

One reason the team management took this courageous step was that they had found Virender Sehwag to open the innings, who bears an uncanny resemblence to Phase 2 Sachin, but perhaps needs to play a bit more like Phase 3 Sachin. One of the many qualities which makes Tendulkar remarkable is his acute cricketing intelligence, the fact that he is always learning. Sehwag does not seem to have that quality. Today, for the third time in recent memory, he was caught at mid-on trying to clear the infield with a strong bottom hand and low left elbow. A soft-drink commercial currently inundating the airwaves in India shows him spending time in the nets with Sunil Gavaskar. Perhaps life needs to imitate advertising here.

While Sehwag's slam-bang brief is acceptable – when it works, it takes the game away – one wonders what brief Dinesh Mongia has been given. A No. 3 batsman is supposed to build an innings; if an early wicket falls, he is supposed to consolidate. Mongia just seems to want to stand there and hammer away at the ball, and he was out in this match in familiar fashion, playing an aggressive uppish shot with his feet rooted to the crease. He has looked good in his brief stints at the crease so far, but the operative word there is `brief'. It is a critical position that he occupies, and against strong opposition in crunch games, India need a top-class player in that position. Somebody like Rahul Dravid.

Dravid has unfairly got a lot of stick in the past – as he continues to get – for being a slow starter, for hogging the strike, for bringing the momentum of the innings down. Much of that was on view today in the first part of his innings, and god knows India needed it. He held the innings together where it might have unravelled, and built the platform on which Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh's final assault was based. Sure, it took him 86 deliveries to get his 50, but the situation demanded it, and he finished with 82 off 117, at a strike rate of 70, which is perfectly reasonable for a No. 3 batsman, and was magnificent under the circumstances.

Dravid won a match for India less than a week ago against England, and his partnership with Tendulkar might well have proved to be a matchwinning one if rain – or faint drizzle – hadn't intervened. In the past year-and-a-half, he has come good for India in a number of crunch situations – in both forms of the game – and he was perfect today. India need him as much as they need Tendulkar.

Amit Varma is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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