Aston Villa 1 - 2 LIVERPOOL [Barry 85' pen; Laursen 31' og, Gerrard 87']

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, step up Stevie G, arguably England's best midfielder, and one of the world's best. Liverpool were three minutes away from repeating their disturbing inability to win the first match of the season for the fourth time in a row, when Steven Gerrard won a controversial free-kick, 25 yards from goal. A few seconds later, the ball curved into the top left corner and into the back of the net, as Stevie G pulled off the kinda goal that only he can with such precision, timing and regularity. It gave The Reds a get outta jail free card, and a positive start to their title bid. Having spent £40 million+ over the summer, their fans will expect nothing less than the Championship itself. An ordinary match that produced the desired result, as we prepare to face Toulouse on Wednesday, and Chelsea at home, next weekend! A blockbuster match-up so early in the season!

OTHER RESULTS:
SUNDERLAND 1 - 0 Tottenham Hotspurs [Chopra 90']
Middlesbrough 1 -2 BLACKBURN ROVERS [Downing 31'; Santa Cruz 62', Derbyshire 79']
Bolton 1 - 3 NEWCASTLE UNITED [Anelka 50'; N'Zogbia 11, Martins 21' 27']
Derby County 2 - 2 Portsmouth [Oakley 5', Todd 84'; Mwaruwari 27', Utaka 83']
EVERTON 2 - 1 Wigan Athletic [Osman 26', Anichebe 75'; Sibierski 80']
West Ham United 0 - 2 MANCHESTER CITY [Bianchi 18', Geovanni 87']
ARSENAL 2 - 1 Fulham [Healy 1'; Van Persie 84', Hleb 90']
CHELSEA 3 - 2 Birmingham City [Pizarro 17', Malouda 31', Essien 50'; Forssell 15', Kapo 36']
Manchester United 0 - 0 Reading

GOALS: 28, RESULTS: 8, DRAWS: 2.

Day 4 @ The Oval, England v India, 3rd Test

LUNCH: India 664 & 3/31. England 345.

India decided not to enforce the follow-on and at 3/11, it seemed like the match had turned on its head and the decision had grossly backfired. In strode Sourav Ganguly, as he and Dravid blocked their way to restore stability when the first of the day's showers sprinkled the ground and forced the players into an early Lunch. It's astonishing how a few minutes can suddenly turn the game on its head, after nearly three days of Indian dominance. India will be hoping to make at least 150, while England will expect to bowl India out for less than 100 and even win the game with a better 2nd innings batting effort. In my view, India will not declare its innings unless they score at least 150, and England will not bowl India out for less than 120. Beyond that, anything can still happen! Weather permitting, of course. (Incidentally, this is the first time I've seen rain in almost exactly 2 weeks!)

And sorry for not posting after Lunch yesterday. Some British Indian friends called me over to watch their team, Spurs, take on Sunderland in the season's 1st game. Rather unfortunately for them, Sunderland's British Indian debutante, Michael Chopra, scored in the dying seconds of injury time and left everybody stunned. When we switched back to the cricket, India didn't look like they were going to get any wickets, until Dravid brought on SRT for the penultimate over before tea and snaffled the dangerous KP off his first ball! It was just the tonic needed to get back the initiative, but it turned out to be a false-alarm. England meandered on after a quick cuppa, until about an hour before the close, when they lost four quick wickets and put India back into the driving seat. (I also watched some of the England-France Rugby Union game played at Twickenham. Quite fascinating it was! According to my friends, Rugby players are more civilized and respectful of the referee than Footballers, and rather against the nature of the game.)

TEA: India 664 & 5/121. England 345. (Ganguly 57)

I told you England wouldn't bowl us out for less than 120! That was because Sourav Ganguly produced a fantastic attacking half-century that put England back in the hole they belong, as India recovered from a dire situation. They now lead by 440, with roughly 125 overs left in the match. If I was Dravid, I'd declare with a lead of 500 and try to bowl England out in 100-110 overs.

STUMPS: India 664 & 6/180d. England 345 & 0/56. [England need 444 more runs, off ~90 overs to win, with 10 wickets in hand.]

India's declaration left England 110 overs to get 500. I could be captain! Unfortunately, India were unable to prise out either Cook or Strauss before the close of play, as England made a confident start to their run-chase. I wish we'd taken at least one wicket. It might've convinced me to go tomorrow, weather permitting of course. But now, I don't know if it'll really be worth it...

Tickets cost £20 ($40). Should I go?

--Thoughts on Day 1
--Thoughts on Day 2
--Thoughts on Day 3

Randomness

Stephen Constantine was the Indian national football team coach between 2001 and 2005. He was not a famous footballer in his day, and in fact, the only team he ever played for, and as a substitute at that, was Enfield Town FC! (Unfortunately, Enfield Town are only a Isthmian League team, and don't play in the Football League, or even in the Football Conference. But! They are geographically and name-wise, my closest team.) That wasn't the only interesting thing about Constantine. His father was from Cyprus, and given the fact he played for Enfield, it reminded me of the fact that there is a significant percentage of Greek Cypriots in my Borough. And even more interestingly, to me at least, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June, he appointed my MP, Joan Ryan, as his Special Representative to Cyprus. What a small world we live in. But not so small that I know any of these folks personally.

Back to the Cricket!

From pappubahry, and like he said: Something I should have heard

Budd Dwyer. I remember seeing the footage in Bowling for Columbine, but I didn't know the details. Eerie.

READ LINK FIRST; IMAGES CAN BE DISTURBING. I'M NOT KIDDING. (SEE COMMENTS BELOW)