The first day
The Wankhede stair which the President of the Bombay Cricket Board modestly named after himself is set just off Marine Drive not far From our hotel. With stands erected close to the oval it had the cockpit feel of Trent Bridge. Built in 1975, it has – like many buildings of that era chiefly on the South bank – too much concrete. With gaudy advertising hoardings on every level it is not an attractive stadium but it witnessed the 2011 World Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka, Ravi Shastri’s 6 sixes in a over and Ian Botham in the Jubilee test of 1980 taking 13 wickets and scoring a century.
Indians now do not go the tests in numbers so the stadium at best was 25% full but nonetheless noisy and colourful. Recently England have done well there. Last visit Kevin Pietersen scored a double century and Alastair Cook a single one. This time around another born in South Africa, Keaton Jennings, was the hero of the hour. After a nervous start where his bat was too inside the line he adjusted his stance and read the spin of Ashwin very well to make his debutant century. Sadly England could not build on this platform but they would take 288 runs and with Woakes and Rashid still to come 350 runs is a possibility. And you would not which to be a batting last on this wicket.
We watched the game in a box with telly providing an interesting dimension of half-way house in the great Rust debate of attendance v TV watching. I did venture outside but the heat soon brought me back to the cool air conditioned interior. The only cause for annoyance from our group was members of the Barmy Army infiltrated our buffet lunch to help themselves royally to our curry.
In the evening two of the Wankhede heroes Ravi Shastri and Ian Botham did a q & a. Both felt the day belonged to England. My view is that it depends how and when India use the new conker and whether England can avoid the batting collapses to which they are prone. I cannot see the test going 5 days nor England bowling out India twice with our spin attack.
