What a time to fall sick! Quarterly closing, loads of work to do and here I was, down with viral and severe cold - the kind not experienced in well over a year. Monday and tuesday I was completely bed-ridden. I missed a major part of the 4th day as I drifted between sleep and drowsiness. However, on tuesday I was much better and went live with the cricket from ball 1.
A friend sent in an entry on facebook : 'Last week was Ram's (referring to the Ayodhya verdict) this week is Laxman's'. You bet it was ! Still with over 90 runs to get and just Ishant and Pragyan for company, I thought it would be curtains before India got 150 runs. I was already cursing Raina for running him out before the third umpire, after umpteen number of replays, decided he was just in. Laxman was always grace - cajoling the short pitched delivery through mid-wicket when other lesser batsmen use their power to get the same result. Never seen him as agitated as he was when Pragyan was ball-watching and refused an easy single. In the end, he and Ishant for the most part and Pragyan for the last part, made sure India scraped home with one wicket to spare. The fever stopped just there and I was immediately feeling much better thereafter.
The second test will not be quite the same; such finishes come but rarely in history...
