Test - Day Five

India win series with Mohali draw

With fog delaying the start again, India decided that a draw was the only result and tried to get both Gambhir and Yuvrav to a century, both falling short.



The Indian press have been divided on whether the team should have pressed for a win. They lost momentum on the 4th day when slow batting stopped them from being in a position to declare overnight. With time likely to be lost on the last day this appeared like a very conservative approach






So whats the right approach? To make sure of the series victory and avoid defeat at all cost, or to look to win every match??



ps the weather was the victor the following day, with fog shutting the airport until around 2pm. Despite the best efforts of our local agent, there was no way that we could get to Goa and have ended up in Delhi tonight. Still an early morning flight will get us to Goa in time for the Queen's speech.

Test - Day Four

Batsmen restore India's control

Any chance of an England run chase on the last day fell away with the batting performance before lunch which saw a paltry amount added for the last 4 wickets. After that India seemed more interested in getting into a position where they could not lose match and batted slowly all afternoon, until a small cameo from Yuvraj (which given his is a local lad went down well with the crowd).

India will declare sometime in the morning and whilst it is always difficult to bat only to avoid defeat, it is important that England manage to hold on.

Test - Day Three

India rally after Pietersen ton

Well apart from two wickets first thing, and two wickets at the close of play it was a good day. Some comments were made about both Strauss and Pietersen's decision but to be fair they were both close and could go either way. Pietersen was his typical belligerent best and after his failure in the first test, and the pressure of going in after two quick dismissals this was one of those situations where he has often shown his temperament.



"Four more for the England"

Test - Day Two

Indian duo leave England trailing

After Indian dominance day one, England needed to take wickets early to stand any chance of a victory. The pitch continues to hold up well and we were to see the continued dominance of Gambhir and Dravid take India out of contention.

To be fair England held on well and had the better of the last two sessions, dismissing India just before close of play (bad light stopping England from having to deal with a few overs). All England bowlers contributed and in Swann we may be seeing a contender for the spinning all-rounder that the team needs.

Security remains tight and its difficult to get round the ground. We did manage to sneak into the Students stand (which to locals cost 20 rupees - about 30p) to get some of the local atmosphere.

Test- Day One

Gambhir century puts India on top

After two days of perfect weather since we arrived, the morning brought cloud and the scene when arriving at the ground had more of an Old Trafford in April feel than sub-continent.

Security not surprisingly was high when entering the ground, but this has been a feature of the tour to date. For the first time we have come across the double frisk, one person does the top half with a seated guard doing the bottom half!


Moving around the ground is not simple, the best marketing mind has managed to partition off the souvenirs shop, so that it took some negotiation with the guards (having only a pass to gate 1a with shop at 1b), another scan, another search before being able to reach the shop (having eventually worked out you needed to go through the ladies search area.

The cricket started well, with Broad opening with a good spell rewarded by the wicket of Sehwag. That brought in the out of form Dravid who looked uncertain early. England bowled ok, but the wicket seemed fairly innocuous and gradually Dravid became more confident with Gambhir showing the fine form he has been in during 2008. A delay for bad light at the outset and also before close (not unexpected) meant that only 70 odd overs were bowled but India ended in a strong position.

Chandigarh

As it had been described by a client as the Milton Keynes of India, my expectations of Chandigarh were not great. The second test had been moved from Mumbai to initially Chennai and finally to Mohali which is effectively a suburb of the capital Chandigarh. So after arriving on Tuesday, I have full week to spend including the 5 (?) days of the test match.

So today was the usual city tour – beforehand it had not received a great billing and it was to cover the three main attractions of the city – the rose garden, rock garden and lake.

I must admit to never having spent any time in Milton Keynes. I have got many trains through it, have changed trains there and have probably driven through the outskirts on a few occassions. Its reputation is mixed, those that live there enjoy it, those from outside who spend time there or like me who barely know it, generally regard it as souless. But it is an example of urban planning, you start with a fairly blank sheet of paper and design a town to accommodate the needs (everchanging) of a new population.

So the same is true of Chandigarh, it was created after the partition of India/Pakistan as the capital of the Punjab state, which had been divided between India and Pakistan. A number of archtiects were used but the most famous is Le Corbusier, who included wide boulevards, parks running down the whole of the town (the lungs of the town) and plenty of open space. Design of new buildings need to provide mix of living and green space, this will never be high density, and is controlled.

So this meant the traffic was less chaotic, and also it seemed generally less crowdy than the India we had seen todate. The highlight of the tour is the rock garden.

Built over many years it is effectively a rubbish tip – ie the most environmentally friendly garden in the world made up of rubbish collected and displayed in highly thoughtful manner. It is difficult todescribe but was featured in Monty Don's best 80 gardens in the world and rightly so

Jaipur

After the Taj Mahal, we had travelled to Jaipur via road, stopping off at a palace along the way and then taking in the sites/sounds that the road journey provided.

Along the way we stopped off at a Haveli in a village. It is a very tranquil location and would be perfect for a few days stop. The locals were obviously used to tourists stopping by, but we were still something of a curiosity.

The following day we spent some time seeing the sights of Jaipur. I will post some photos shortly but in the meantime......


The cricket

England crushed by Tendulkar ton

At the end of the day it was an excellent performance by India. It showed the class they have in their batting line up and to be honest at the start of the match, a close defeat was probably as much as England could have expected. That said defeats such as this, after being in a strong position are difficult to take and it will be interesting how England react.

England arrive in Chandigarh

Short flight from Jaipur to Delhi, couple of hours wait and then another 45 mins flight to Chandighar.

We are staying at the same hotel as both teams and therefore had a welcome from the press (the teams were to arrive a couple of hours later). It took the press a few minutes to work out that the tour contained a group of supporters and not players but they were happy to snap away in any event. So next time your are in a dentist in Delhi, pick up a two month old Indian version of Hello and see me waiving, you will know that this was the source.

Now to decide, how much to charge for an autograph......

Taj Mahal

Sometimes it is better to let the pictures talk:















The cricket

Sehwag blitz sets up tense finale

England dominate for most of the day - ok so a few good strikes at the end of the day give India some entertainment, but surely........

Flashback - are the aussies coming?

Brisbane

Lions tour 2001.

First Test

Walking to stadium.

Hundreds of lions supporters, all in colours (the red used by the combined nations - well the welsh would complain if it was any colour other than red). A sea of red, presumably the aussies must get to the ground early to sample the atmosphere??

But no. Not only was the ground full of lions supporters but the aussies were camouflaged (in later matches they would be given gold flags and tops to try and match the invaders - but never got close).

With Jason Robinson scoring a try in the corner in front of us, and the Lions winning with some ease, you could see why they stayed away. Later we were told that Brisbane was a rugby league area, not union. Probably true but a good excuse after the result.

Travel to Agra

Leave Delhi early morning and the journey (c 4 hours) by road to Agra begins. The roads are still novel and entertaining to us and so the journey itself does not feel too long. Our driver is obviously a man in control. Whilst he appears a calm gentleman, he knows when to use the horn, that in doubt you put the foot even harder to the pedal (either accelerator or break) and manages to get us there in one piece.

On arrival lunch, and then a journey to Itmad-ud- daulah (known as the Baby Taj) and to Agra Fort. Both are extremely interesting and we are beginning to understand a bit more about the history - Britain obviously had a significant effect but realistically played a part in a very small (albeit important) part of India's history





The cricket

Strauss stars as England dominate

A strong combined bowling effort, a lead of 75, three fairly cheap wickets and then the match appears to turn.

Strauss (yes him again) and Collingwood (lucky in many peoples eyes to get the nod ahead of Shah) putting in a fourth wicket stand that puts England in a very strong position.

Delhi Tour

New guide for the day Punma, who took us around the sights, noises and smells of Delhi. Delhi is a complicated place, seven old cities, a new city, lots of people and chaos on the streets. We managed to see a lot of history, take our lives in our hands with a rickshaw ride and get to understand the sales techniques of the locals (don't give up, don't ever give up).

The Cricket -

Swann on song as England prosper

Indifferent batting sees England short of the aspirational 400, but a strong bowling performance sees England edging day 2. Swann, yes the slow bowler (it would be wrong when in India to call him a spinner) becomes one of only two bowlers to take two wickets in his first over in test cricket. The other was Richard Johnson against Zimbabwe and we all know what happened to him (the amount of people who will say “Richard who “ reflects the impact he made on test cricket.

Arriving in Delhi

Day one – arrive Delhi

I am travelling to watch the second test and taking in some of the sights beforehand and then relaxing in Goa afterwards. The tour has been organised by The Cricket Tour Company.

I went with the same company to New Zealand and they had a good balance between efficiency and friendly approach, small groups and reasonable value for money (i use the word reasonable just in case they read this and look to increase their prices!). They had managed very well with the chaos after the Mumbai attack and i always had confidence that they would organise something provided it was safe to travel.

So flight direct to Delhi and my trip to India started. Local guide Amit met us at the airport and we had our first sight of driving in India between Airport and Hotel.

Now this is probably a good time to try (and to be honest its impossible) and describe the roads in India.

At first glance it appears like chaos on the streets with cars beeping vans, vans beeping three wheelers, three wheelers tooting rickshaws/people on the street. But after a while it makes sense. Use of the horn is not an aggressive approach but just a polite “hello I'm here – would you mind getting out of thew way”. Well not quite but despite the apparent mayhem the traffic moves (well something akin to M25 on a Friday evening) and I have yet to see an accident. Over the next few days, travelling outside Delhi, you get used to Cows, Water Buffalo or other animals on side, in middle and all over the road and also cars coming towards you in the fast lane of your side of the road. Just to repeat no accidents seen to date but the cars do appear to have a few scratches here or there.

The Cricket – Plenty of time to watch the highlights on TV (repeated all evening).

England falter after Strauss Ton

England start well with Strauss/Cook having their first partnership of any note for some while. Not much from the middle order and the position ends nicely poised. Given the recent one day performances and the turmoil, overall better than expectations.

Flashback - my first test match memory

1981.

The Oval.

Botham's ashes.

As a schoolboy i had watched the test series on TV. Botham's hitting, the bollowing of Willis, all inspired by Graham Dilley taking the initiative with the bat.

I went to the oval test match. Memories of uncomfortable seating (benches), Lamb going down the wicket to the Aussie fast bowlers and Dirk Wellham. In the second innings Wellham scored a century but seemed to take an age in the nervous nineties. The home crowd soon got on his back and suddenly he could not get the ball off the square. Memories play tricks on you but it seemed like it took him ages to get to three figures but eventually he did.

First real memories of test cricket - an England Test Series victory - what a cruel world, to set such expectation in a young man, was it to contunue this way.............

Welcome

So whats this all about? For years i have combined two passions of sport and travel by watching a number of major sporting events abroad. This is mostly cricket and rugby and being English has included a number of high and very low moments. This blog starts in India 2008 which whilst typing has seen England succeed in losing a test match that most people thought they had done enough to win.

Its an appropriate start.

So going forward as well as providing a diary of a sporting tour (which would always include getting to know the country as well as watching sport) i thought i would share a few flashbacks from previous sporting events i have attended.