Test cricket is great!

Just turned on the radio to hear India need 118 more to win, with six wickets left. Plenty of time left, still half an hour to tea, so there will be a result. But on a fifth-day pitch, you have to call it balanced. Tendulkar is in and playing his best for ages -- but after him, not so much. This the concluding drama after four previous gripping days. Will Strauss's two centuries, Swann's debut heroics, and Pietersen's excellent captaincy in his first Test, be enough to gloriously triumph over the team who just now thrashed Australia? -- or will the great Sachin, Mumbai born and bred and an icon of the city second only to the smoke-blackened dome of the Taj hotel, write what must be one of the final chapters in his legend by winning the match for India in the most traumiatc of circumstances?

There just is nothing else in sport like it for drama.

Wow.

Just wow. That was the only time I've ever cheered on seeing England beaten. Sachin Tendulkar has just scored the winning runs and simultaneously completed his (41st) century. An amazing performance from him and from India, achieving the 4th highest score ever to win a Test.

It would be churlish to complain about England's shortcomings just at the moment, although the scorecard will be obvious testimony to them. They can hold their heads up with some pride. They've taken part in one of the most wonderfully dramatic Tests, and have not disgraced themselves while being beaten by a clearly better team. Strauss's two centuries, only the second time such a feat has ended up on the losing side. Collingwood's re-establishment of his form -- when they were batting together, it really looked like England were favourites to win. The game was only tilted away from them by Sehwag's whirlwind of inspiration last night, but it was won for India by this nerveless stand between Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh (who played nobly to deny himself a century so his partner could get his).