Ouch, that hurt

While we were all mourning the Lahore attack, a great cricekting camaradrie was at display down-under, during the rain-hit 1st ODI between India and New Zealand at Napier. This is what we saw – Sehwag tumbles down face-first onto the mat after being tripped by Iain O’Brien, the NZ medium pacer: 

And as Indians, we were all troubled when we saw Iain aim at the stumps- what if the ball had hit the stumps and he appealed? The friendly pat left us fuming too. But then I come across Iain writing on his blog thus: 

Soon after we came back out I bowled to Sachin, he dropped to about silly mid-on and I ran through to effect a run-out. This is where things get interesting. I clipped Sehwag’s leg on the way though and tripped him up – face first into the deck. I picked up the ball and threw it at the stumps not knowing he had ended up in a crumpled mess on the floor; I thought I had just clipped him and he had kept on running. If my throw had hit I know for certain that we would have not pursued the appeal. The next ball got smashed back over my head very hard indeed. At the end of the over I went to Sehwag and gave him a pat on the back, no hard feeling pal!

This is amazing sportsmanship spirit from a Kiwi bowler. He had the balls (notice: plural) to write about this the way he did. Imagine an English player- oh wait, why imagine, when you do have such an instance at hand.

Mr Iain O’Brien, as an Indian, and (hence, I guess) a fan of good cricket, I salute your doing and your thoughts. Your actions have made all cricket lovers proud.