The India captain was having an indecently good time in the series opener but the hosts were left with little to smile about
It was quiet, too quiet. It was the taut, knotted silence a cricket fan knows all too well, the one they can read instantly, whether they’re just arriving at the ground a little late for the start of play, or popping their head through from the next room to check the score on the telly. A quietness that speaks volumes, that needs no translation, that transmits its message directly to one’s bones. England had lost a wicket in the first over, and the hush wasn’t so much breathless as suffocated.
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