This is a modern era classic… Add this to those special matches like some of the ashes matches in 05′ and the Kolkatta match in the series against Australia. Truly spectacular… a total classic.
Congratulations to England and India, their supporters, who put up such a beautiful match. Add to that, the Chennai crowd has again added to some of the warmth which was showcased by a barmy army fan in this write up.
The people who stood out:
Andrew Strauss: Unlucky to not receive the man of the match award. He fully deserved it for almost single-handedly putting England in such a great position.
Virender Sehwag: He walked the talk and changed the game in 10 overs! He pulled off their pants in a vicious assault on their bowlers. Takes over Jayasuriya’s post today on being the bald headed Chenghis Khan of cricket.
Andrew Flintoff: My Goodness, didn’t he not give everything? Bowled superbly with good pace. It was absolutely amusing watching him having a go at Yuvraj and provided the right kind of banter and entertainment. No one should have a complaint on that.
Got rid of that ridiculous beard and saved the arctic too in the meantime.
Sachin Tendulkar: No sign of God 2.0. Should be playing for India with clutches and arthritis at 80 and will still be more than useful.
Yuvraj Singh: Makes a comeback… Can he hold on to his pants now? Or does he still need that black belt?
Paul Collingwood: One of the few English players whom I like. Did what Dravid was supposed to do. Score runs and come back to form. He doesn’t drop any either. Thankfully he even shaved and got rid of that agonizing constant constipation look derived out of getting caught in a strip club.
Harbhajan Singh: Needs a permanent gag order. The extend of the disrespect he shows to the opponents requires to be dealt with some of the crude castration laws in rural Africa.
Monty Panesar: Looked like a lost tourist who went to a gay pub expecting to see an opera show.
Swann: Bowled impressively but was unlucky at times. Looked to be the only guy that could consistently trouble India apart from Flintoff. Certainly looks the best of the English spinners in recent times.
KP: Lost his marbles. Every time when Swann started to trouble the Indian batsmen and subsequently they do something different to come after him, he is removed from the attack. Has not been scoring either.
Matt Prior: Discovery channels very own Fumble-bee
Rahul Dravid: A victim of black-magic… A used toothbrush, needs a thorough makeover job.
Zaheer Khan: On viagra making those balls move late in his life.
Hoping for a real cracker of a match in Mohali.
Simply clinical. I think they have explored all options and now can win from any position.
Yeah scorpi, it was fuckingly fabulous match after what happened in last 3 weeks. Cricket won and so did its spirits…..
we shud laud England for turning up and playing their best cricket……..
in the end cricket won and terror lost!!
Very nice read. Kirsten called it, he said “India are capable of anything” and boy was he right. Sure we had our luck in this match, what with Tendulkar dropped on 10, Yuvraj plumb to Swann but England appealed for the bat pad and Gambhir not being given out having gloved a ball… and England had their share of bad luck with Bowden’s horrible decision, but at the end of the day this match was turned on its head by that Sehwag innings, and Tendulkar’s classic yet climatic finish. As an Indian cricket fan, or even just a cricket fan, you couldn’t ask for anything more and both teams deserve a special round of applause for putting on such a brilliant spectacle.
Cracker of a match… and a cracker of a post…
scorpi, this post goes well with alcohol. as does the win. cheers man!
an entertaining read – “bald headed Chenghis Khan of cricket” — lol
You serious Viagra does that to balls…Zak does swing them so.
Wonderful points..agree Strauss deserved the MOM and Sehwag did rip them off.
Yes Som… an old mind block of being safe first seem to have been thrown out of the window. Perhaps that is the difference between the ones like Australia and the rest.
It is to see how true this holds or one of those rare fluky streaks.
true sam… cheers
Achettup,
Welcome to cricketfizz.com. Hope to see more of you here. A lot of luck indeed was in our favour and it may be one of those really flukey matches for India or a sign of a change in attitude towards pushing hard for a win.
However, England were total muck in their last innings bowling.
Thxs Trideep… Hope Mohali turns out better… cheers
Cheers NC… am off alco for a while… what a pity when the moment comes, you are left with only tropicana!
Cheers SB… on the viagra, it was just a vicious pun on reverse swinging the old ball… do you reckon this was a fluke or at least a freak match. The big brownie from this test match is that India changed the traditional approach of playing safe first, securing the draw and then look for a win. Here all that changed. I will be interested to see their approach now in the future.
Thxs Rs… long time back I did a tribute to Jayasuriya calling him the bald-headed chenghis khan of cricket for his ruthlessness. Sehwag has taken over and he is bald too, so the bloodline..er.. hairline remains.
Just a quick note to say thanks for the link and happy to swap!
Cheers
And a spectacular write
we should take this confidence of great win to go next level…to become no.1 team…who can win from all situation…irrespective of condition and pitches…
Thxs achettup
Thxs Q… you got this match right. Am still having some questions about it which should surface in the near future.
That’s the big question isn’t it SP? We always falter on that and I primarily attributed to the lack of balls to force a win… risk taking ability. Dhoni may change that and so far as good. We still have a series to win though
.
LOLs all over the post…super post man…my favorite was the one about Zaheer…you can sell that line to an agency man
As for the win, I thinks it edges Perth for second place behind Calcutta
Good one Scorpi..
As an Indian cricket fan I have been taught not to get too excited over a few amazing victories coz things tend to go back to normal in a few days. But this time it feels different..this team does not want to give up till it is over…dare I dream?
Great match… the sign of a top-quality side.
Apart from that, I wonder if it was the Viagra that caused this page to get blocked by the filter at work…
Congratz and such like Scopri, I wasnt home on the last day and was on a office function. I kept calling the Mrs up to get updates on the score. When I heard it was 4 down with a few runs to go I was in shock.
God Sehwag is unstoppable right now. And how about Sachin nipping in for a 100.
You guys should be well proud. The only thing that pisses the shit out of me is that its a 2 test series. FUCK!!! A 3 tester would have been bloody brilliant. Imagine if England win the 2nd test going to the 3rd.
Cheers AV… I forgot about the perth match though that will remain one only in the context of India rather than test cricket in general.
Megha… Dare I dream… How I wish too… The reality is that hardly a series back, we were comfortable with saving rather than winning. Let’s see how it pans out
LOL Jonathan… I doubt the viagra word could have caused the block. I guess most firewalls club sites into groups like entertainment, education etc. Must have fallen into one of those filtered groups.
Cheers
Damith… Much of the facts in recent times of having only a 2 test series is good old board politics. I guess now the relationship with the ECB will change a bit to the positive and hopefully more tests come into play.
There is also an another angle to it on the fact that India and Australia are the hardest working teams in world cricket in terms of number of matches being played. Australia currently tops, with India, a very close second in terms of number of test matches played this year.
So there is a myth too here on India concentrating only on the 20-20 formats. Actually not true.
Coming back to this series, we have to win the next else England will still go back high on not loosing a series for the second consecutive time in the last decade.
There’s another test match shaping up nicely – the Oz/Saffer game.
SB.. I stuck my neck out for the saffers among some of my friends. Their dramatic collapse got me annoyed for sticking for them LOL.
But one thing is still now… I backed Amla to be the man for SA. So far so good.