EXCITING EDEN GARDENS

This is why I simply adore watching Test match cricket. As I write this, South Africa are 9 down for 263 after cruising at 218 for 1 at one point. At tea, 228 for 2, everyone was thinking of the Nagpur Test and the similarities of how the events were unfolding (along with a common protagonist - Hashim Amla).

What a day of extraordinary Test match cricket this is turning out to be. One thing's for sure - had the same events unfolded in Nagpur, the match wouldn't have seemed to be as interesting as it is here at the Eden Gardens. There's just one very simple reason for this - the Kolkata crowd.

Passionate in their support for the team, the Kolkata fans have created an electric atmosphere in a home Test for India after a long time. Interestingly poised, this kind of a match is a just reward for the good crowd that has turned out.

Zaheer was whole - hearted in his performance, both with the ball and in the field (AB De Villiers' run out). And Harbhajan gets excited by the smell of late afternoon Kolkata air. With Laxman back in the side, Sehwag & Sachin with centuries under their belt in the previous Test, and the bowlers having the new found confidence and knowledge that Hashim Amla is 'dismissable', India can now barge in through the small window of oppotunity. Come on India! We still want to be No. 1!