Missed it all

Stop me if you've heard this before, but I missed most of the fourth day's play largely because my body couldn't keep up with it all. It would have made for the best viewing thus far in this series, and I'm still slightly upset by it all. Things got off to a bad start when I tried sharing my enthusiasm for the game with my dinner guests. Good friends that they are, they hung in there while I tried explaining the game, but I think it was a lost cause. Shortly after, I fell asleep on the couch (pretty rude, don'tcha think?). When I awoke it was lunch, and my friend was casting quzzical glances in my direction. We said goodnight, and I tried watching a bit of the game again. (By this time I had missed the Dhoni, Dravid and Pathan dismissals). Dimly, through a haze, I saw Chawla fall to Hoggard, and then fell asleep again. Waking at 6, I struggled to make sense of England's score, saw the Collingwood fall, and then fell asleep again, woken by the sounds of the closing 'credits' on the screen. All in all, a frustrating day, and the sense of loss at having missed out on a full day's worth of see-saw action is still keenly felt.

I'm hoping I can pull through for the fifth day's play, which promises to be a cracker. I predict Flintoff will blast off sometime before lunch in an attempt to put the match beyond India's reach. And I'm hoping (not expecting) India can do better with the tail, and plan any chase that results a bit better.