Ten needed: four-six-bam!

I missed the astonishing end to the first ODI between West Indies and Sri Lanka yesterday, but The King alerted me to Shivnarine Chanderpaul's brutal conclusion to the match. Ten runs needed, nine wickets down, two balls to go. Oh, and Chaminda Vaas to bowl them, a man with nearly 400 ODI wickets behind him and whose first nine overs had gone for 17 runs.

It was one of those situations like near the end of a First World War movie, when everyone in the trench knows that the task is impossible, that they will never be going home to their sweethearts, that Little Johnny won't get the hug from Pop that he was promised. Then the platoon commander tells his men "Best get it over and done with. Good luck and stout hearts" before blowing his whistle and going over the top.

That's how it was for Shiv Chanderpaul, only without the mustard gas and the trenchfoot. He blew his whistle and set off on a near-impossible task. And, by Jingo, he only went and did it. The fifth ball of the last over was smeared through mid-off for four and then he clubbed a full-toss over deep mid-wicket for six. Fifty-over cricket has been getting criticism for being dull after the advent of Twenty20, but there may be some life in this old dog yet.