Out-Barmied by India's loyal billions

Everyone knows how crazy the Indian fans are. Everyone knows how much noise they make. But only when you're in the middle of it can you truly understand it. They applaud every run like it's a century and make noise for no apparent reason. Now we're perfectly capable of that in the Barmy Army as well, but these guys take it to extremes. And this is when their stadium is less than half full and their team is struggling.

The huge security was very little yesterday and even less today, which meant there was an even bigger opportunity to concentrate on the cricket and for an England fan that was a good thing today. We figured it was going to be tough against this batting line up but our bowlers came to the party and the few fans we have bought over here made themselves heard in a big way to help the boys along.

India is an interesting and at times frustrating place to tour as nothing quite works as it does at home. But with friendly people and a team on top, none of it seems to matter. There was a certain antipathy to Harbajhan and Yuvraj today, the former for his inflammatory words in a press conference yesterday and the latter for falling out with Flintoff. It was good to be on top, but there's a long way to go.