What an incredible five days of Test match cricket we have just witnessed in Chennai. In a game that seesawed, first India's way then most definitely England's way; was finally turned on its head with some unforgettable batting by India's superstar batsmen.
At the start of India's second innings needing 387 to win, I bet there were only six or seven people in the ground that thought India could chase down that total, it probably just happened to be India's top seven batsmen. Virender Sehwag came out of the blocks and attacked the English new ball in a way that no other batsmen had been able to do on what had become a slow and very warm Test match wicket. His innings late on the fourth afternoon transformed the game that had been dominated by Andrew Strauss who had scored a hundred in both innings of this unbelievable game. In doing so he had become only the tenth English batsmen to accomplish this feat.
The game was still in the balance half way through the last day when Yuvraj came out to bat to join the truly masterful Tendulkar. Tendulkar's hundred was a master class in technique and concentration and when Yuvraj almost immediately got into his stride, it left England's bowlers helpless in their battle to save the game. Although perhaps some of England's bowling was a tad disappointing, it just proved how good India's batsmen are, especially on their own grounds where they are so used to these slow turning pitches.
At the end of the game, England's eleven would have been absolutely shattered and at that point it would have been no consolation to them that they had just been involved in one of the great Test matches. The England management will I am sure try and pick the positives out of the five days and then try and galvanise the team again for another massive effort in Mohali on Friday.
It will be unbelievably difficult to stop this mighty Indian Test team in their tracks; we held the upper hand for four and a bit days in Chennai, let's hope that we can manage to do it for a bit longer in Mohali this week.
