"Welcome to the Pleasure Dome! Final day shoot out ahead"

Part 3 from my 4th self-published book "The Spirit of Cricket" sees the prospect of a final day shoot-out ahead in the 2023 final of the World Test Championship between Australia and India at The Oval in London, and here's a video of my reading of this, the fifth chapter in my self-published book, a brief extract from the chapter itself and a link to the paperback version:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF4FRKSH

"Since the close of play on Day 1 I have posited that Australia are in the box seats, ahead of the game, and on course to be crowned Test Match Champions of the World. Here at the end of Day 4 I see no reason to change my overblown opinion other than to stress we have the real possibility of a humdinger of a day of Test Match cricket to look forward to tomorrow, all four results are possible and on the table, and crowd darling Virat Kohli is 44 not out overnight and looking in imperious form ahead of tomorrow’s shoot-out.

As I strolled along the River Severn in the Shropshire town of Shrewsbury, taking advantage of making yet more memories with my beautiful son as well as worshipping at the altar of both the town’s majestic Abbey and a beautiful sun high in a cloudless sky, I was blissfully unaware of Australia’s progress from their overnight total of 123–4 to their eventual declared 2nd innings total of 270–8, whilst not forgetting the small matter of setting India a record breaking 444 runs to win in the process.

Returning in time to see this Aussie declaration and the swashbuckling and counter attacking innings’ of Indian captain Rohit Sharma and a bubbling crowd’s favoured cricketing son, Virat Kohli, in essence, nothing had really changed come the end of play “Stumps” at 6pm local time. OK maybe a little of the match momentum had changed with Kohli’s brilliant partnership of 71 with Ajinkya Rahane to take their team from a precarious 93–3 to an overnight total of 164–3 was a mighty effort from the Indian batsmen and, perhaps very crucially indeed, Kohli will be returning fresh in the morning with 44 runs already pencilled against his name.

But cricket is, and will always be, a numbers game. Australia started the day with a 296 run advantage with 6 of their own wickets in the batting “shed”. They ended the day with a 279 run advantage BUT now just needing 7 Indian wickets for a World Champion victory. In the quixotic numbers game of cricket, India have effectively rubbed 17 runs from the Australian lead but have, in effect, lost 3 wickets in the process, and all despite taking 4 Aussie wickets today and scoring 164 counter attacking runs themselves. Therein lies yet another example of why I adore Test Match cricket, together with the example of a team heavily on top for three and three quarter days and still major favourites for a famous victory, but could still be overhauled for a victory that will be seen as even more remarkable and history making. That today, on the surface, appears to have stagnated between days three and four but has in fact escalated to the certainty of a final day shoot-out, all results possible, and the overwhelming favourite since the second hour of day one maybe, just maybe, could still be pipped at the post by an outplayed opponent seemingly chasing the impossible".

Thanks for watching!

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