Cricket: England vs India

In a way, it was not a conscious decision of mine to watch every single ball of England's World Cup match against India on Sunday.

As I rose at 8:30am and trundled downstairs for some breakfast in anticipation of the game, I had in the back of my mind the intention to do some work at some point during the day. Throughout the World Cup so far I have tended to watch the first 10 overs of a game and then get on with more pressing matters, keeping an eye on proceedings thanks to BBC Sport's live text. This time though, it did not work out that way.

Instead, I sat in front of the telly for eight hours and watched one of the greatest one-day games.

The game's to-and-fro nature was just mesmerising. From that first over when Jimmy Anderson could have dismissed Virender Sehwag twice but instead went for eight runs, the little cricketing devil (complete with horns that stick out through his white cricket sunhat and holding a bat and ball) that lives inside my brain whispered sweet nothings to me, and that resulted in me barely moving for the rest of the day.

By the end I was extremely grateful that devil is there. I witnessed two sublime hundreds from Sachin Tendulkar and then Andrew Strauss, a masterful spell of bowling from Tim Bresnan, a total of 676 runs (the highest aggregate score in World Cup history by the way) and a victory pendulum that just kept on swaying.

The game also had something else that is a significant rarity - another batsman outshining Tendulkar even though the 'Little Master' scored a ton. Tendulkar's knock was typically composed, thoughtful and simply brilliant. Despite starting slowly, he still managed to score 120 magnificent runs at more than a run a ball. His innings was perfectly paced, chanceless and involved no risk whatsoever - but we have come to expect that, and if we got anything less from the great man we would be surprised.

Yet Strauss' innings chasing a mammoth total, albeit on a supremely flat deck, was even better. He played in a Tendulkar-esque manner - with nous and skill in abundance. Despite the pressure of chasing down India's 338, the England skipper remained unflustered and simply played to his strengths. He cut and pulled well, as ever, and knew he only needed to hit one boundary an over along with nudging and nurdling the necessary ones and twos.

I must admit, what did surprise me was how well he swept the spinners. I did not have him down as a particularly strong sweeper, but he used the shot expertly, and when he did sweep they were hard and along the ground from the moment the ball left the bat. The shot gave him an important outlet when Harbhajan and Chawla were trying, unsuccessfully, to tie him down and make him do something silly.

However, in spite of the two outstanding hundreds by Tendulkar and Strauss and all the runs that were scored in the match, or perhaps due to them, my favourite moment of the match was the maiden Tim Bresnan bowled to Tendulkar - the 14th over of the game. Bresnan was superb with the ball and deserved to get the five-wicket-haul he did. After Tendulkar could only prod the sixth delivery into the offside for the sixth occasion in a row, he wore a look not of disappointment or disgust at himself, but just of genuine respect for an outstanding over of immaculate control. It was a human touch that said a lot about a man who simply lives and loves cricket and has a desire to play the game at the highest level, seemingly, forever.

A tie was a fair result in the end. In fact, it would have been a travesty if someone had lost.

It was a great game of cricket that, as Strauss pointed out in his post-match interview, championed the 50-over game excellently and truly brought this World Cup to life. I am so glad my little cricketing devil forced me to sit on the sofa to experience it fully.