Game Day, Second Test - Day 2.

Chennai, Oct 15th 2004.
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.

Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.

The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!

I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.

If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.

The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.

“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.

So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]