Day 4 of the second test at Trent Bridge, and it’s not just the sun that’s been all smiles today.
Michael Vaughan’s dismissal (287-4) created an opening that Zaheer Khan exploited to take his five-for. For the record, his previous five-for was way back in 2003, so hey, it’s about time. The bloke charged in, bent his back, got the ball to nip away and pitched the leather in troublesome territory more often than not.
Unlike his counterpart from down South, who - unfortunately - bowled a line that required little intelligence to leave. The Englishmen were rarely asked the question by a certain Sreesanth who directed more profanity than in-swingers at the Englishmen, and that prompted Dravid to get his trump in to clean the lower order.
Anil Kumble needed to drill in. We were losing hope, giving up on him, and I nearly initiated a movement to have a particular ring of tar renamed back to ‘Oriental Circle’ in Bangalore. He responded, thankfully, and barring Sidebottom’s spirited fight at the end, the English tail just didn’t wag. The Indian openers strolled around for 10, leaving them now with an easy 63 to achieve on a full day’s play that I’m hoping stays dry. And it isn’t the beer that’s the concern.
This is one celebration that I’m really looking forward to. Of course, the last time India celebrated was when Dhoni blasted a few boundaries and an edgy tail-ender hopped, fidgeted, fished and twitched around before the rain-Gods put him out of his misery and unleashed a no-result on the match. What was even more ironic is that England also treated the draw as a victory. I guess the complacency led to their defeat this time around.
I can’t wait to see us win tomorrow. Maybe James Anderson got Tendulkar on the helmet and bad - incidentally, had it not been for the guy who invented the grill, that would’ve certainly been Endulkar - but if India do win tomorrow, and considering the last game ended in a miserly draw, guess who’d have inflicted the maximum damage?
P.S. Why in Sobraj’s name have rediff used the same headline?
