Well after a break from touring India, and a great two weeks in Sri Lanka, I returned to India. Flying from Colombo, via Chennai, up to Ranchi in the state of Jharkhand. It is a working city, not on the tourist circuit, however they have a great modern stadium, a short 20 minute taxi round south of the centre. As the tour progressed the venues were more organised with lots of food offerings downstairs below the seating tiers of the stadium.  The weather was pleasant, not hot but comfortable, so it made for easy sitting and watching the cricket. England were trailing the series 2-1, after winning the first match in Hyderabad, before loosing in Vizag and Rajkot. So could they manage a better performance and tie the series up before the 5th match?

England opened with 353 in the first innings, India’s replying with 307. In the second innings, they fell from 110-4 to 145 all out, so it was India’s match if they could chase down 192. The result then looked obvious as India scored the 192 for 5 wickets down to win the match, and series, now being 3-1 up in the 5 match series.
So the match everyone was looking forward to, in the foothills of the Himilays, at Dharmshala. The press reported 5000 British fans travelling for it, this was grossly exaggerated, but there was a good turn out for the match, despite the series being lost. My guess was somewhere in the region of 1500 travelling England fans there for the cricket.  The scenary and views from the Himichal Cricket Stadium being great looking north to the mountains.
Any hope of England performing better soon disapated in the first day, being all out for 218. India scored 477 over the next day and a half, to leave england well behind. What was news-worthy was Jimmy Anderson taking his 700th test wicket.
The result was only going one way and it was clearly going to be over soon, when the team posed for the photographs on the morning of the 3rd day.
There was great noise and celebration in the stands as India bowled England all out for 195 on the 3rd day, my prediction was it would all be over by the tea break was correct. Seems like the England players wanted to go play golf on the 4th day, or just get straight on the plane and go home.
To conclude my India tour, I had a long train ride down from Dharamshala, a couple of nights in Mumbai, before my flight home. A long winter in India, but fantastic as always.