An Indian or a TIE

Big Harvey recovers from an Indian tummy to report om England's exciting second World Cup match which went to the very last ball

My sightseeing side-trip to Mamallapuram that I'd planned after the Nagpur game was unfortunately spent mostly either laying in bed or sitting on the bog, something that quite a few people I spoke to in the ticket queue the day before the game claimed to have spent the last two or three days doing. Given the numbers affected, suspicion was inevitably cast on the stadium food in Nagpur. It had looked and tasted OK, but what of the way it was handled? Nagpur's new stadium, despite its remote location is state-of-the-art in so many ways, and even got the thumbs-up from most of us as a place to watch cricket, but there really is no excuse in this day and age for failing to provide soap in the wash-rooms If there's no soap available for spectators, then it follows that there's also none for those preparing and handling the food. Don't forget either that this is food we were pretty much forced to eat, since you are not allowed to bring your own food or drink to the game.

 Anyway, I arrived in Bangalore the morning before the game, and after checking into my digs I headed straight to the ground to pick up my tickets. I was expecting mayhem, but the queue, although getting longer all the time seemed manageable. Predictably, the ICC's ticket agent, Kyazoonga, despite the massive bad publicity their failings have generated in recent weeks, had only opened a solitary ticket window for those with internet bookings. Most of us had booked our tickets (originally for Eden Gardens of course) on-line for courier dispatch back at the beginning of June 2010! Long enough, one would have thought, for Kyazoonga and everyone else involved to get their act together and get the bloody things dispatched in time for our departure. Sadly not, so for me an hour and three quarters of queuing along a dusty main road in the heat of the midday sun it was. By the time I was nearing the front of the queue I calculated that those joining the back of the line could expect to have a waiting time of four to five hours, and even that was assuming that the Kyazoonga laptop or internet connection didn't go into meltdown. At that point though they opened a second ticket window. Why they couldn't have done that earlier is anyone's guess. Perhaps they just felt it was their duty to try and piss us off.

 Far from it though, since for most of us who have experienced India before, the procedure went unexpectedly smoothly.

 The same could not be said for getting into the ground the following day! Despite arriving there over three hours prior to the start of play, the queue was not only already long, but moving very very slowly indeed! Part of the reason was people pushing in, but the fact they were using only one or maybe two gates to let 40,000 people in, and to carry out all the security checks was the main issue. The security checks were starting to look pretty cursory by now, since as usual they had obviously realised that things were moving nowhere near fast enough. One cordon picked up on my antiseptic hand sanitizer, (technically in a plastic bottle, and therefore banned if you want to be really, really pedantic) and tried to take that off me. I just flatly refused to hand it over and barged through. The same thing with the next cordon, which picked up on my sun cream (in one of those plastic pouches, not even a bottle), and tried to say that was banned, too. Once again I just told them it was going in and pushed through. In neither case did they make any serious effort to argue the point. They didn't find my pen.

 I got in just in time for the toss, won by India, who elected to bat. England were missing Broad due to a stomach bug, with Shahzad being his replacement, and Yardy came in for Bopara, England presumably wanting the additional spin option.

 Anderson started promisingly, and was desperately unlucky not to account for Sehwag, with three false shots going agonisingly close to being snapped up in his first two overs. Thereafter he began to get wayward.

Shahzad at the other end went for a couple of fours in his first over, but thereafter looked tidy, if not hugely threatening.

By the start of the 8^th over, Sehwag in particular was looking ominously settled, which always spells potential big trouble, and Tendulkar, although scoring slowly was also looking comfortable. However Bresnan replaced Shahzad, and in a wonderful first over accounted for Sehwag who tried to steer a widish one fine, only to find the gloves of Prior, who took a brilliant catch. It was a source of great relief that he'd only managed to amass 35 runs.

India's 50 came up in 8.3 overs.

Gambhir rode his luck, and scored two unconvincing boundaries off a single Swann over, one a skier over mid on, and one thick inside edge. By the drinks interval, India had progressed to 96/1 off 17 overs. I stayed in my seat, since I'm not a fan of fizzy pop, which was the only safe(ish) thing to drink that was available to spectators. Several of us had hunted for a supply of safe drinking water, but were unable to locate any. At Nagpur, sealed plastic bags of drinking water had been provided for free, but here there was nothing. The attitude of some England fans was along the lines of “this is India, what do you expect?” Well if this was some domestic competition, I would have agreed, but this is the World Cup, for heaven's sake! Do you think the International Olympic Committee would tolerate the host nation failing to provide safe drinking water to spectators at the  Olympic Games if they weren't allowed to bring their own? No, neither do I, and yet the ICC seems to be happy to allow paying spectators at its premier event to be treated in this way, and it's just not good enough.

The 100 was brought up four balls later. Sachin also reached his 50, which had come off a relatively pedestrian 65 deliveries, but the towering 6 over long-on which brought it up suggested that he was not intending to carry on in the same vein.

After 25 overs India had progressed to 140-1. Yardy and Shahzad did manage to keep Sachin and Gambhir quiet for a while, but then the shackles were broken by two huge Tendulkar sixes off successive Swann deliveries. Strauss opted for a change of ends for Swann, but his replacement at the end where he had conceded the sixes, the hapless Anderson, went for three boundaries, with Gambhir bringing up his 50.

Much to everyone's surprise, the change of ends for Swann worked, as he accounted for Gambhir with a ball that turned past the outside edge, clipping off-stump. It was a vital wicket for England, but they needed more to get back into the game. This brought Yuvraj “Water boy” Singh to the crease though, and he looked to be in no mood to oblige.

Sachin may have started slowly, but was now really laying into the English bowling. His hundred came off 103 balls, compared with his first 50, which had come off 65. By the time he fell -  for 120, caught by Yardy at cover off a leading edge to give poor Jimmy Anderson some not entirely undeserved reward - he averaged significantly better than a run a ball. It had been a marvellous innings, worthy of one of cricket's all-time greats.

After 40 overs India had progressed to 247/3. With wickets in hand and two of India's biggest hitters – The Water boy and M.S. Dhoni - at the crease, a massive total looked inevitable. Not only that, but England's fielding was showing signs of deteriorating from the mediocre standards hitherto set to the downright ragged.

The 46^th over saw the 300 come up, with a huge Dhoni 6 off Yardy. The agony was really being piled on now, although The Water boy departed a couple of balls later, caught by Bell off the bowling of Yardy on the midwicket boundary for 58.

There was no real celebration from England who looked a beaten side, but things did improve next ball as Dhoni also holed out to midwicket off  the bowling of Tim Bresnan, whose bowling had been genuinely impressive. We had something to cheer about at last.

Even so, going into the last two overs, India were 327/5.

Bresnan was bowling the 49^th over though, and his first two balls resulted in the wickets of Pathan (slower ball looped to mid-off) and Kohli (yorked off-stump). Even better a couple of balls later, as Harbhajan was trapped plumb LBW by another Bresnan yorker.

His last over had yielded 3 wickets for just 2 runs, and his match figures of 5-48 were a remarkable effort given the circumstances.

Anderson bowled the final over, and the fourth ball – a wide no-ball to the boundary conceding a free hit – pretty much summed up the way his World Cup has started. The resultant free hit was  tapped straight back to him though, and Chawla's suicidal single was never going to happen. The next ball also produced a run-out, this time with Zaheer Khan going for an equally suicidal second, or at least he thought it would have been a second. In fact the first one was short!

 Incredibly India had failed to last the 50 overs, but their massive total of 338 looked more than enough. England's fielding had once again been below par, although not quite plumbing the depths seen against the Netherlands. Only Bresnan consistently impressed with the ball.

I went and checked out the stadium food. After my post-Nagpur experience I wasn't keen to partake, but it had already been a long day and I had to eat something. I settled for a couple of samosas, which were as mediocre as the England fielding I had just watched. I also needed to drink something, but the scrums at the pop stalls were impossible and there was no orderly queueing. When I reached the front and still couldn't get served, once my turn to get served had been and gone several times, I simply reached over the counter, stuck 20 Rupees in the boy's hand, grabbed a paper cup, ignored his protests, and helped myself to some draught Mirinda orange. It was tepid.

 India's total was a big one, but the locals in the queue before the game has been talking in terms of 300+ scores being on the cards, so maybe if England got off to a good start, we were still in this game.

 And get off to a good start England did!

Middlesex's finest, Andrew Strauss pulled the first ball of the innings (bowled by Zaheer Khan) to the square leg boundary, and notched up another one in the same over. This time it was with a cut which was administered with the viciousness and enthusiasm of a Con-Dem cabinet minister.

At the other end, KP was batting with greater fluency than he did against the Dutch. England were rattling along at a rare old pace, but while we appreciated some  respite in the noise levels, and the chance to make a modest amount ourselves, we assumed things would go tits-up soon enough. When on 22, Strauss had a bit of good fortune, dropped by Harbhajan at mid-on, with the ball going on to dribble over the boundary. The England 50 came up off just 7.3 overs, and they had progressed to 68 when Patel snapped up a caught and bowled chance from KP at the second attempt. 68/1 off 9.3 overs.

Despite this setback England were not going to die wondering whether they could still reach this massive target however, and just 3 balls later at the 10 over mark the score had reached 77/1.

The scoreboard urged spectators to “Turn on Bluetooth now. Get free video on mobile.”

Er, I thought mobiles (along with just about everything else) were supposed to be banned from being brought in? Oh well, this is India, and lots of people seemed to get in OK with mobiles.

The hundred came up off 13.5 overs, as did Strauss's 50, which took exactly 50 balls.

The drinks break as often happens turned out to be the catalyst for another wicket, Chawla accounting for Trott with an LBW so plumb that Trott barely even waited for the decision.

After 20 overs, with England 132/2, the scoreboard failed to assist us by showing the Duckworth Lewis calculation should rain intervene. After 21 overs however, it had England massively ahead. So we were winning! Most of us in our heart of hearts still had “runs on the board” down as favourites, but what an effort this was!

Our fears appeared to be confirmed when Bell seemed to have had a not-out decision on an LBW appeal by Chawla overturned on review. Hawkeye showed the ball pitching OK, hitting in line, and hitting the stumps. However, Bell already walking off was called back by umpire Bowden.

We were mystified, but apparently there's a new ruling that if impact takes place more than 2.5 metres from the stumps, it's down to the umpire's discretion. The Indian crowd was not happy, and  rightly so in my opinion, but no chairs or anything else were thrown.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of his lifeline Bell capitalised on it. After 31 overs England had reached 200/2. Strauss's hundred, which almost had an inevitability about it, so well was he playing, took 99 deliveries.

The hundred partnership was another milestone, brought up with a huge six over long on off The Water boy that nearly took out the big screen.

Bell's 50 came off another towering 6 over midwicket, and it was almost with disbelief that we noted the empty seats starting to appear, which confirmed that England really were favourites!

Amazingly the scoreboard was showing 93 needed off 84 with 8 wickets in hand! We started saying “cheerio” to the departing Indian spectators, and singing “we can see you sneaking out!”

Big totals can create cruel illusions that the team doing the chasing is winning easily though, and that was very much the case here. Boundaries became fewer, and the required rate went up although with Strauss still there, and so many wickets in hand we were still confident. His 150 was brought up in style with a 4 through mid-on off Chawla.

With 59 needed from 48 balls Strauss decided it was time to go in for the kill with the Powerplay. Now England never have done Powerplays very well. Not all cricket fans (including me) even understand them that well, either! They are supposed to be a catalyst for upping the scoring rate with easy boundaries, but all too often in England's case they tend to be a catalyst for silly shots, batting collapses, and an inability to hit the ball off the square. And that is exactly what happened with this one. First Bell fell to Zaheer Khan, holing out to mid-off. Then disaster as Strauss himself fell LBW next ball to an in-swinging yorker. The game was completely on its head once again.

Every dot ball and even every single was greeted with a huge roar as the English batsmen simply couldn't get it past the fielders in the ring. Off the 3^rd ball of Zaheer Khan's next over, Collingwood was bowled charging almost blindly down the pitch.

Prior fell next over, mowing at Harbhajan and giving a catch to midwicket. What a mess!

Now, a small group of England fans was seen leaving, probably to the pub. The Indians triumphantly said “cheerio,” as we had done to so many of their supporters not many overs previously. I'm the kind who will always stay until the bitter end, though. I really don't understand how you can spend all that time queueing and not want to see a full game, especially when you've come thousands of miles, and especially when it's been as good a game as this one.

With 3 overs remaining, 34 were needed, with four wickets left, Still not impossible, but looking extremely unlikely, with India having all the momentum. Then with only two more added, Yardy spooned a slower ball from Patel straight to Sehwag at short fine leg. Game over? It certainly looked that way.

With two overs left, 29 were still required. As far as tall orders went, this had now reached Robert Wadlow proportions. 1^st ball of Chawla's final over was a dot ball, leaving 29 required off 11 balls and the Indian fans already celebrating victory. Then a brief silence as a Swann sweep shot cleared the rope  for a flat 6. The next two balls only yielded 3 runs between them, but the 5^th ball was absolutely nailed by Bresnan as it flew like a tracer bullet over midwicket for another 6!

This triumph was short-lived as Bresnan fell next ball, clean bowled. He had helped give us some hope though, however faint.

14 needed, with Patel to send down the last over. Swann to face. Two off the first. Second ball outside edge and a single, which puts Shahzad on strike. Third ball Shahzad launches it over the bowler's head for six!  Stunned silence from the Indians, palpitations and delirium for the English.

5 needed from 3 and the game on its head once again. Shahzad misses the next one, but Swann is so committed to getting the strike he almost overtakes the ball on its way down and they run a bye.

Four needed from two. Swann connects, but it's only an inside edge. Somehow they get back for two.

Last ball, two needed. Unbearable tension. Swann drives, but it's straight to mid-on. Sufficient fore a single, but no more. Some Indians start to celebrate, but seconds later realise the game isn't theirs. It's a tie!

Handshakes all round with the Indian supporters, but nothing to celebrate except for the fact that we've just witnessed possibly the greatest game in the history of the World Cup.

My ears are still ringing!