Sachin Tendulkar pumps his fist in celebration as he comes back for a second run, to move to the landmark century. And as he arrives back at his crease, his eyes meet the beginning of a remarkable series of fireworks, paid for by the Indian Institute of Splendid Batsmen (IISB). One after another, bolts of fire are launched over the heads of the slightly puzzled members, sitting before the famous Lord's pavilion. Finally, a crescendo - the fireworks meet in the sky to read a message for the little maestro: "WELL DONE SACHIN - SPLENDID EFFORT OVER THE YEARS".
Such is Sachin's excitement, however, that he is deceived by the following ball from the excellent Stuart Broad, which creeps through the little chap's defenses to chip his off stump. As if disappointed by Tendulkar's dismissal, the umpires call close of play ten minutes early, because of fading light, but even in that North London gloom, Stuart Broad's smile is as white as a polar bear as he contemplates his five wicket haul, together with the corresponding inscription of his name on the Lord's honours board. At close of play on day one, the match is well poised with India on 312-9 (Tendulkar 100, Ghambir 112, Broad 5-63).
The tension is high on the morning of day two. Lord's is abuzz with the news that overnight, Christopher Martin-Jenkins was summarily dismissed by Test Match Special producers, following revelations in The Guardian that he once wrote a column for The Times, which is a Murdoch newspaper. With just thirty minutes to go, he is reinstated following a special appeal by Jonathan Agnew on his Twitter account. With the TMS commentary line-up is sorted out, conversation in the media centre turns to the state of the match. Can Andrew Strauss withstand Zaheer Khan's penetrative left-arm swing? The question becomes academic, though, as before play begins Zaheer twists his ankle playing Australian rules football on the outfield in the team warm-up. He is out for the series, and with the left-armer unable to bat, the Indian innings is closed at 312 all out.
Without Zaheer, there is relatively little for the English batsmen to worry about, and sadly, the cricket on day two is fairly unremarkable. Before the day is out, Alistair Cook has reached his nineteenth test match century, Jonathan Trott has ground his way to his seventh and England close on 362 for 2. The boredom is only broken when Kevin Pietersen tries to hit Harbhajan Singh into the nursery ground, but only succeeds in cracking one of the panes of glass in the media centre. The author of this column finds this remarkable, as he is given to understand that the panes have been designed to withstand blows from cricket balls travelling at over than 60 mph.
In a positive step, England choose to press on through the third day. Commentating on Sky TV's coverage, Nasser Hussain explains the England camp's thinking: "The likes of your Dravids, your Sehwags and your Tendulkars, they won't want to be batting against Graeme Swann on a turning pitch with India 300 runs behind." That theory is finally put to the test when England declare on 606 for 6 (Cook 125*, Trott 125, Pietersen 123, Harbahjan 5-182). However, India bat well to close on 110-1, before play is brought to a premature close by a thunderstorm travelling up from the South West.
The fourth day is also somewhat dull; but in a good way, because England are predictably good. Under clouds as dark as a Hallowe'en night, James Anderson makes early breakthroughs, leaving Tendulkar exposed to the middle order; but just as he starts to break free against Anderson and Swann, Stuart Broad comes on to bowl a tight spell. Thus Tendulkar is resstricted to a couple of singles an over. Finally, the diminutive middle-order batsman is dismissed for the second time in the match by Stuart Broad; and somehow, it feels as if England have control of Tendulkar. The spell has been broken, Tendulkar's time is nearly done and it is time for world cricket to go in a new direction. It's difficult to be sure, but three hours later the Lord's crowd is given the slightest hint of that new direction, as Stuart Broad bowls out Harbhajan, to take his tenth wicket in the match, and to win the match for England with a day to spare.
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