Sunday 28 February 2010

Couldn't ask for a better first day of games

Having finally got to the stadium after being sent the long way round, the Spain vs South Africa game had just started and the stadium was still filling up. Spain were always the more inventive and used a lot more width which  told in the end, them coming out 4-2 winners.

Next up was England vs Australia, my hopes weren't high but with the crowd getting bigger and it cheering England on, something to do with Australia cheating in the cricket I thought we would have a chance. Although the opening play was mostly Australia we were always in it mostly on the break, our short corner defending was telling as the Australia on slought was kept out. As we grew with confidence in the game, the counter attacking style looked like it might pay off and with our short corners being converted and the home crowd behind us we came out deserved winners 3-2.

Now the big one, with the stadium virtually full, all 15,000 (somewhere around there), the crowd was very vocal, even the Indian national anthem reverberated around the ground as one voice. The small pockets of Pakistani supporters were trying there best but getting rather mocked and so the players seemed to find it hard going. India scored early on and even the master of the short corner Sohail Abbas couldn't find his way, putting two rockets onto the crossbar. So once they went 3-0 up just after the start of the second half so things were all over, its good the local team got through as hopefully this will help the support and the game develop into what it once was.
So quite a first day of games, pretty much what we could of wished for and to top it off a friend took us to a lovely curry house, not too spicy and very tasty.

It's Holi tomorrow so it may mean not going out till midday to avoid getting coloured at least a well deserved lie in can be had.

2 comments:

Andy Mair said...

Glad that you managed to get into the ground and enjoy a fun-packed day. I'm on video ump duty today, so keep your eyes open I may need some help!

Tanay Ghosh said...

I'm assuming that you were the umpire in the scintillating India-Pak match Mr. Mair. I must congratulate you for a tremendous job under such pressure, though the Shivendra ban seems harsh.

Keep up the blogging Mr.Barnes. Hope your experience in our country is something to cherish.