Kissing Your Sister

Legendary American Football coach Duffy Daugherty once described a tie as ‘like kissing your sister’. I shudder to think what he would have made of events at Bangalore.

Trying to rank one day internationals, or even World Cup matches, is largely pointless, since beauty (or tension) is in the eye of the beholder. In this case I’m not a neutral so I don’t have a particularly objective view of proceedings, but this must be among the best games ever played in the World Cup. While it lacked the creeping tension, not to mention the importance, of the epic Australia v South Africa semi-final in 1999 or the sheer improbability of the West Indies’ one wicket win over Pakistan at the Oval in 1975 it was, nonetheless, an utterly compelling game of cricket.

Things didn’t start well for England. First of all Stuart Broad, by some distance their best one day seamer, reported sick, then they lost the toss and then Jimmy Anderson endured the sort of over that would have any bowler seeking immediate psychiatric treatment. Quite how Virender Sehwag was still there at the end of it is anyone’s guess, but Anderson can’t have imagined that his day would get any worse. Unfortunately he’d have been wrong. With Ajmal Shahzad betraying nerves at the other end, Sehwag looked as though he would capitalise on his early good fortune, but the impressive Bresnan induced a firm footed waft that was well held by Prior before causing Gambhir problems early on.

While all this was going on, however, Sachin Tendulkar was just beginning yet another masterpiece at the other end. I first saw him on a cricket field in 1990 in the game at Lord’s in which Graham Gooch made a triple century. I had just turned twenty two – it seems incredible that now, in my early forties with grey hair and a rather less athletic figure than was the case then, that Tendulkar is not only still playing but that he looks exactly the same. This was his ninety-eighth international century, a record that doesn’t become any less mind-boggling with repetition. Just as no-one will ever surpass the marks set by Wilfred Rhodes, Jack Hobbs or Don Bradman, so it is impossible to imagine another Sachin Tendulkar.

Here he started slowly, allowing Sehwag to indulge in his own unique take on opening the innings, but once he was into his stride he was unstoppable. A six over long off from Paul Collingwood looked utterly effortless, while the two in a single over from Graeme Swann showed greater ferocity and intent. His hundred had a sense of inevitably about it, to the extent that his dismissal, to a tame leading edge, was easily the most surprising aspect of it. Still, he had laid the platform for an assault that would surely carry India past 350 and into clear water.

Except that it didn’t really come. England, and especially Michael Yardy, bowled well in the batting powerplay, and then Bresnan produced the kind of over that stays with a player for ever. I must confess to being a Bresnan fan – he looks like a rugby player, but he is quicker than he looks, moves the ball a bit, and is intelligent enough to make the utmost of his talent. He bowled superbly at Melbourne and Sydney and looks to have kept his form, for he was the pick of the England bowling even before his 49th over heroics. To finish with figures of 5-48 when the opposition have wracked up 338 is some going.

India, then, were thirty runs or so short of where they would have hoped to be, but they were still ahead of the highest score ever successfully chased in India, which is 325, so they must have been confident. Their bowling, however, was quickly under pressure as Strauss and Pietersen took the innings to them. Andrew Strauss only has six ODI hundreds, but three of them have been in excess of 150 and he batted remarkably. His range of stroke has impressed since he came back into the ODI in the West Indies in 2009 and this was further evidence that he is now a very accomplished one day batsman.

Pietersen fell to a freakish catch by Patel and Trott failed for once, but Strauss found his ally in Bell and they set about making the total look very ordinary. With nine overs left they required sixty-one and looked to be in the box seat. Then came the powerplay.

A lot of wise after the event nonsense has been talked about this decision. England have generally not made great use of the batting powerplay, but in the past they have been criticised for not taking it early enough and for waiting until the established batsmen have gone. It was easy to see the logic, but with Ian Bell falling to a poorly conceived shot and Strauss falling to a beauty straight afterwards it seems only natural for the commentators, who had predicting an easy England win, to point the finger at the powerplay. In fact, I was responsible: having spent the afternoon keeping up to date with the innings on my phone I finally managed to switch on the radio only for two wickets to fall to the first two balls that I heard.

As Geoffrey Boycott is fond of saying, always add two wickets to the score and see how good it looks then (although he seemed to have forgotten that maxim in his commentary on Sunday afternoon). The new batsmen, unsurprisingly, struggled and with two overs to go the same commentators who had so confidently (and prematurely) heralded an England victory just half an hour or so before were sharpening their knives.

They had forgotten two crucial things, however. The first was that England’s tailenders are no mugs, and the second was that Zaheer Khan had finished his spell and so the last two overs were to be entrusted to Chawla and Patel. Perhaps taking that powerplay early and forcing Dhoni’s hand with regards to Zaheer hadn’t been so stupid after all. Even so, it is hard to imagine a side coming close in those circumstances before Twenty20 made anything seem possible.

Swann and Bresnan duly went after Chawla, each smiting him for a legside six, but Bresnan’s dismissal to the final ball of the over seemed to be the final blow. We had reckoned without Ajmal Shahzad.

Swann started the final over positively, playing characteristic shots to the first two balls of the over, but it was the third ball that turned the game on its head. Facing his first ball Shahzad, standing deep in his crease, produced a shot that he will bore his grandchildren with, a glorious strike into the advertising hoardings at long on. Suddenly England believed again. A rapidly taken bye and a two from Swann left them needing two to win, but the single brought a tie and a pretty fair result.

Both sides will be concerned about their bowling and India should also worry about their fielding, which was awful at times. MS Dhoni will also need to be more positive in the field, but their batting remains astonishingly good. As for England, they will have taken a lot of heart from the way that they set up a strong position and then showed great character in fighting back at the end of each innings. Stuart Broad cannot come back soon enough, mind you.

As for those who were lucky enough to be there, many will have gone to the game hoping to see a hundred from Sachin and an Indian win. They didn’t quite get all that they wished for, but they witnessed an extraordinary game of cricket and you can guarantee that there weren’t many sisters being kissed in Bangalore on Sunday night.