And then it happened: a wicket fell, another followed. A setback, but nothing too serious just yet. Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah were still alive and well.
Then Shakib jumped out and smashed the first ball he faced for a six over long-off. Madness! Put it down to a rush of blood? Nope! A few balls later he swept hard and straight to square-leg and the floodgates were well and truly opened. Zaheer Khan reversed his way to three wickets in 4 balls and just like that 6 wickets were lost for 14 runs.Mohammad Ashraful (rightly) gets a lot of grief for his impetuosity but this display by Shakib was as egregious as any of Ashraful's misdeeds. Seriously, dude, what were you thinking? You had a chance to put India under some serious pressure and you gifted them a win.
(I know, I know, there's still one wicket to go but when I was brave enough to predict an Indian win after the first day of the Test, do you really think I'm going to balk at predicting one now?).
P.S. Even as I posted it, Zaheer Khan ripped through the defence of the last batsman and India now needs 2 runs to win. ZAK gets 10 wickets in the Test.
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