A day at the Cricket!!!

I had been to the Tri-Series involving the 'A' sides from India, Australia and New Zeland today. It was the match featuring India and Australia. The weather was perfect with clouds acting as the shades from the heat of the sun. 

Badrinath from India 'A' won the toss and decided to bat. This was my first time at the new Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad and i wanted to test out the camera of Ram as i was floored by it during the Vodarevu trip. So requested his camera for this match.

Shaun Tait and Geeves opened the bowling for Aus. Tait was fiery with the new ball and was able to generate good bounce and pace from this pitch. He ran through the top order by scalping Uthappa, Raina and Badrinath in his first 4 overs. 

Kaarthick, Asnodkar and Sharma tried to repair the damage but were only successful in contributing to the Indian woes. I have to say, Rohit Sharma along with Yusuf Pathan had quite a following among the crowd here. 

Yusuf was the lone successful batsman for his side today with Nayar and Kumar chipping in a bit. He had a 73 run stand with Nayar for the 7th wicket and the pair appeared like taking India to a respectable score of around 220 but once Nayar edged Noffke to Ronchi, there was a mini-collapse again to leave India tottering at 160-9. 

In came, Praveen Kumar and D. Kulkarni. They shared a last wicket stand of 47 runs. Praveen Kumar, known for his hitting in domestic cricket, connected a few today which enabled India to reach 207. Kulkarni for a batsmen coming in at No.11 looked very accomplished with the bat and had no business coming in at 11. 

Coming back to Ram's camera, it is a beauty. I was able to get some clear close-up action shots of the match. If not for the boisterous small crowd which didn't let me concentrate on myself, i would have got a lot of good pics. This just shows that i can give Cricket reporting a try again if i am be able to buy a similar camera. 

It was time for the Australian innings to resume, there was nothing to write about other than Ronchi Ronchi and Ronchi. The guy is an excellent hitter and took a liking for all the Indian bowlers. The team had 3 bowlers who played for India - Chawla, Kumar and Pathan. They were no match to the wicketkeeping dynamo. I was in awe of his hitting ability which left me wondering as to how can he be a failure in IPL!! 

Rain abruptly ended the proceedings and Australia was declared the winner. No complaints from any person as the Aussies were coasting to the win anyway. 

The one thing that left me in a bad state of mind about the match was the kind of crowd that was there. I really wish that whenever the BCCI decides to leave the entry to the match free, to have a seperate section for ladies as well. The crowd was so pathetic in their behaviour towards the players and in General, it creates a necessity for Women only stands when free entry exists and there should be a warning board to the players fielding near the boundaries informing about the same. 

The short report on the Aussie innings only substantiates as to what caught my attention in the second half of the game. Pathetic...