Rodney Cavalier is chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust; he once said that cricket is one of the few sports where intensity has its own reward for the spectators. “Each delivery” he said, “has an intrinsic significance which melts into the narrative of the over, the over takes its place in that session, the session becomes a chapter in that day, each day is a volume in the story of a Test, the Test stands alone as a part of the unfolding pageant of the history of the game”. “There is no such thing as a pattern, one moment of glory can fox the compass of rhythm”, sometimes we as fans get lucky enough to witness some of these moments. And then they live on with you for the rest of your life, like cricket tattoos.

During the second day’s play at Gadaffi, a run fest was underway. There is no point in trying to tell you all that happened, too much of it took place at once, if yesterday some one had let the dogs lose, today the whole zoo must have been exposed. This wasn’t, in other words, the kind of day where you would expect any such marvel moments that Rodney Cavalier spoke of. But one over from Harbajjan Singh to Shahid Afridi was something special. 27 came of it, the first 24 off the first four balls; it was the second most expensive over in test cricket history. It’s become a cricket tattoo that’s etched in my mind now; it’s unlikely I’ll ever forget it.

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