India duly won the latest cricket test match against England and thus cannot lose the three-match series and have a very good chance of winning it by drawing or winning the last game. They bowled and batted very well and deserved the victory. This is the India captain, Rahul Dravid, celebrating.

The England management will have various explanations and will point to various turning points over the five days of the game. However, I think the series was forfeited by England on the mid-afternoon of the fourth day of the previous game. England had built a lead of more than 350 with their star batsman, Kevin Pietersen, with a century to his name. Instead of launching an all-out attack on India they batted sedately and unproductively for an extra hour to add a few more runs and reduce the chance of India winning. As a result they had no opportunity to bowl at India before the tea break. The forecast for the following day suggested rain. The England lead was almost impregnable. There was only one reason to bat on - the fear of losing. In the end, the rain did arrive on Monday just in time to save India. Had England not been afraid of losing they would definitely have won the game - and demoralised India and almost certainly won the series. A great example of knowing when to be brave and seize the moment. It's sad that England failed but great for India and for cricket - and I hope (but doubt) that the lesson will be learnt.

Incidentally, the same applies to publishing. Carpe diem.

It's the first of the month. In July this blog had 84682 visits, a come-down from the amazing June statistics caused by the Google heist post. However, total visits to date have reached 991,226, within spitting distance of a golden blog award.