an extract from an article, that encapsulates the magic of the 5 day game ;
My own somewhat guilty pleasure this summer has been to follow the contest between the England and India cricket teams, which came to a thrilling climax on Monday. I appreciate that there will be some Guardian readers – and not only in the US – who will be poised to swipe, or turn, the page at the mere mention of the word cricket. But stay with me, because this is not a point about sport, but about life.
Across five separate matches, each one played from morning till dusk for five straight days, these two sides of 11 men did battle with everything they had. It was a physically gruelling competition. The England captain, Ben Stokes, who looks as if he could have commanded a platoon of men in the trenches at the Somme, has a body that has been battered through years of relentless exertion. He is an all-rounder, both batter and bowler, which , combined with his leadership duties, means he scarcely rests. After one of the five matches, he was confined to bed for four days.
The third Test match was won at the death thanks to a ball delivered by England’s Shoaib Bashir. He managed to spin it in such a way that it confounded the opponent who faced it, and he did that despite nursing a broken finger. In the closing moments of the final match on Monday, England’s Chris Woakes walked out to the middle, apparently ready to face a hard, heavy cricket ball hurtling at him at a terrifying 90mph, with one arm in a sling, his shoulder dislocated. When he ran, his face was a rictus of pain. In the end, England fell just short.
It was an enthralling 25 days, sometimes played out in searing summer sun, sometimes interrupted by July rain. What we witnessed from both teams was a display of determination so extreme, it is rarely glimpsed outside the realms of violent fanaticism. There were moments of folly and failure, dropped catches and bad decisions, but these were athletes aiming for, and often reaching, the heights of true excellence. You didn’t have to be a fan of cricket to find the sight exhilarating. In the end the series was drawn, and perhaps that was oddly fitting. The teams had matched each other in their resolve not to be beaten.