Their partnership required 13 balls to open its account, but then on, Dravid and Laxman frustrated the Australian bowlers with their patience, eschewing any risks by leaving all the good balls. Dravid displayed some amazing shots early on in the partnership. A textbook cover-drive, which in Ravi Shastri's opinion, had "good balance", then at 95/4, in the 25th over he hit two consecutive boundaries off Bichel, the former being a whiplash pull, while the latter was an on-drive which he played down the ground, while moving his feet well. Harsha Bhogle opined on air that, "That is a superb shot! We have seen two shots of high-quality in this innings, in this over, rather. This was even better than that pull shot, this was shot of great class and grace..."