At approximately 4.30 yesterday afternoon, the prospect of India winning this game was weighing heavily on our minds. Defeat seemed inevitable. The tourists were just four wickets down, and their lead had already stretched to forty. Enter Stuart Broad. Goodbye, Yuvraj (we don’t like you very much by the way), Dhoni, Harbhajan (see Yuvraj), and Kumar – the last three dismissed in a memorable hat-trick.
No doubt India fans will claim that Broady’s hat-trick was illegitimate, as Harbhajan’s lbw was marred by a huge inside edge, but nobody west of Mumbai will care. You guys didn’t want the DRS for lbws so suck it up.
Besides, up to that point in this series, India had generally enjoyed most of the luck with borderline umpiring decisions – and overall, they’ve still benefitted from their apparent reluctance to reach the right decision more often.
Just because the DRS isn’t perfect is no reason to consign it to the dustbin. Whatever you think of it, it’s still a useful aid and it’s churlish to ignore its benefits. I’d ask India supporters this: Tendulkar is fallible (i.e. he sometimes fails and plays an ill advised shot) does that mean you’d like to toss him into oblivion? Nothing, and nobody, is perfect.
Anyway, I digress. The main talking point yesterday was the quality of the cricket, which continues to enthral and mesmerise. England looked dead and buried when the masterful Dravid, and the entertaining Yuvraj, were piling on the runs.
Everything seemed to be going India’s way: the toss, the weather (clear blue skies compared to Friday’s overcast swing-fest), the play and miss ratio, Laxman’s reprieve when snicko proved he was caught behind, Trott’s injury. The cricket God’s seemed firmly against England. But then, suddenly, gloriously, the match was turned on its head by Stuart Broad’s spell of 5 wickets for 0 runs.
By the end of the day, India’s lead had been cut to forty. England have nine second innings wickets remaining – although the chances of Trott batting again are about as likely as Australia beating anybody decent in the immediate future.
If England can get a lead of 200, it’s game on. India are still favourites, but anything can happen.
James Morgan
Listening to Test Match Special on the way home this morning was extremely entertaining. All the excuses and explanations for people missing Broad’s hattrick were very amusing. Unfortunately, I was one of those people as I wandered around Kensington on a sunny afternoon. Great moment for England.
India’s reluctance and refusal to use the DRS has had some pretty severe consequences. Harbhajan would have reviewed successfully and could have added another 40 or 50 valuable runs that would have piled the pressure on England. “Poetic justice” as one chap suggested to me.