Jimmy by James Anderson

Author:James Anderson [Anderson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781471128318
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

11

A New Dawn

Although I don’t tend to get too sentimental about stuff that happens on the field, even the hardest of souls would have found it difficult not to appreciate what Sachin Tendulkar’s match-winning hundred in that first Test at the Chepauk Stadium meant to everyone around India in the aftermath of the most horrific terrorist attack on their soil.

Sure, at the end of the day this was a Test match, England were there to win and the disappointment of losing is never any different, but it was outstanding on his part to play an innings like that at a time like that. He has to live daily with the pressure of being a national icon and, given the fervour with which the Indian people worship him, he has become accustomed to having to deliver in tense situations. But this was something different. This was Mumbai’s most famous son delivering victory in his home city’s hour of despair. It was as if it had been scripted.

They say cricket unites people in India, and they certainly got behind Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh as they pushed for an unlikely victory in that fourth innings. The whole atmosphere as they got closer to their 387-run target was incredible. And it was no mean feat to get home by six wickets, having been faced with the challenge of scoring the highest total to win a Test on the subcontinent.

Virender Sehwag hurtled them out of the blocks and Sachin showed touches of genius to guide them home. It was all a very different atmosphere from the one we’d experienced when we arrived back in southern India just a few days earlier. There was a lot of security around and despite having great faith that our security adviser Reg Dickason would not condone sending us somewhere dangerous, we remained somewhat on edge. However, the one thing in our favour was that, because of the lack of turnaround time, we were focused on cricket from the outset. There were just a couple of days’ net practice ahead of that first Test, although, as we had acclimatized during the limited-overs series, lack of preparation was not so much of an issue.

That much was evident when we began the two-match series so well. Having opened up a 75-run lead in the first innings, Andrew Strauss’s second hundred of the contest set up the chance of a second consecutive Test win on Indian soil but the home batsmen mastered the dry pitch to secure what was effectively an impregnable series lead.

Impregnable because there was never going to be the time to force a result up in Mohali, scene of the second Test after it had been switched from its original venue, Mumbai. Daylight is at a premium in the north of India during December and we knew hours would potentially be lost from both ends of the day. So it transpired. On game days, we would set off at ridiculous o’clock from our hotel in Chandigarh and during that hour-long trek we would not be able to see ten yards in front of our faces, it was that foggy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.