Even India-Pak cricket encounters have thrills, spills and edge of the seat excitement that rivals the worst offering that emerges from Mehboob Studio.
Look at the Sahara Cup series. Teams crush each other on successive days, bowlers dominate one match, batsmen the next. Captains decide to bat first, but then change their mind .
Maddening, and somewhat baffling; but the only constant was a drama so pervasive that sceptics suggested in hushed tones that cricketers were actors, the actual script was written elsewhere. A sinister foreign hand, they hinted darkly, controlled all action.
Which is nonsense, because nothing is fixed in cricket matches. Cricket itself is uncertain and one day games are impossible to predict. Fortunes change in an instant; a two-over spell by a bowler, a few hefty hits from an aggressive batsman alters the situation. Most games are tight, margins of victory and defeat extremely slender.
The uncertainty of cricket was heightened in Toronto. The wicket was dodgy, it wasn't fully prepared and three games in a row on the same surface made it worse. Batting was difficult, especially for the team playing second