Dravid joins elite group with unbeaten century

Dravid, 36, followed compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, West  Indian Brian Lara and Australians Allan Border and Ricky Ponting  past the 11,000 mark with his 27th test hundred.

“I’ve been playing for a long time. I’ve been around the  scene for a long time. It’s nice. I guess it is something about  my longevity,” he told reporters.

“I’ve been able to be consistent over pretty decent periods  of time which has helped me stack up these numbers. It’s a nice thing.

“There are some great people on that list, people I have  truly admired and watched and I’ve had the pleasure and  privilege of playing with on that list.

“It’s just nice to be up there, nice to score runs especially in the context of a game like today, to make it happen when your team really needed it, it just makes it all that special.”

Dravid, who has also scored more than 10,000 one-day  international runs, said he felt the fluency had returned to his  batting.

“I felt pretty fluent right through the innings, pretty much  in control of my game. It was one of those days you just knew  things were really going for you and you really want to cash in  and make a big one and I am glad I was able to do that,” he  said.

“It’s nice to get this feeling of batting the way I am.

“I’ve been through some tough times couple of seasons. I  thought the flow has sort of come back this year a little bit  for me personally in various forms of the game.

“But yeah, I’d say it was probably one of my most fluent  efforts over the last few seasons definitely.”