Guess what Nehra146;s dog did in the last over

8216;8216;Stay where you are, don8217;t move. Keep quiet,8217;8217; says father Diwan Nehra to the dog and to two of his brother8217;s children who can8217;t stop whispering into each other8217;s ears.

Mother Sumitra and elder brother Dinkar don8217;t say a word.

As Rana Navedul Hasan misses the first ball 8212; a dot ball 8212; there is some clapping. Muted, hesitant, eyes fixed on Nehra walking back. When Rana takes a single off the next, the father says, under his breath: 8216;8216;Aath run rah gaye Eight runs to go.8217;8217; He8217;s sure the son has heard.

Tension, spread taut across the room, breaks, just enough for a few smiles to show through, when Moin Khan fails to score off the third ball.

It8217;s now the mother. 8216;8216;Come on beta, keep it up,8217;8217; she says, her eyes now closed.

8216;8216;If we can contain Moin, we can win,8217;8217; says the brother as the Pakistan keeper takes a single.

Two balls and seven runs, it isn8217;t rocket science: a six and a one, a four and a three, Pak can still win. So the brother joins the billion giving the Bowler advice: 8216;8216;Bowl a dot ball. That will do for now.8217;8217;

Rana runs for a single8212;as if his life depended on it. Six needed off the last ball and with Moin to face, the family remembers a man called Miandad, a place called Sharjah and a bowler called Chetan Sharma. The TV cameras don8217;t help, they even close up on that man gesturing, perhaps saying, 8216;8216;This is how you hit a six.8217;8217;

The mother turns the other way and refuses to look at her son. And she doesn8217;t until Zaheer Khan takes the catch, until everyone in the room is shouting, until everyone is hugging each other, until she finishes the prayer.

Then she does what a mother does: she rushes into the kitchen to get the sweets. What about Durban? He8217;s back on his feet, his tail a blur.