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Old 18 Mar 11, 01:11 PM  
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3Lions
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Join Date: Apr 10
Location: Orlando, FL
Chennai for cricket

Just returned from Chennai after a very brief stop to watch England v West Indies.

Travelled out with Emirates from Dubai on 16 March 11. Flight was packed and got upgraded to Business, which was nice. Who's in the queue at the gate? None other than Geoff Boycott, who's going to be commentating for BBC radio he tells us. We have our picture taken with him and on we get.

Arrived at 20:30 into Chennai. Cars were waiting for the 10 of us who made the trip and took us to the Taj Clubhouse. We chose this hotel because it was a relatively short distance from the cricket ground and looked the best in the area. From previous experience of Chennai, traffic is bad, really bad, but we made the journey from airport to hotel in half an hour instead of the scheduled 45 minutes.

All checked in, had a quick wash up and then down to the bar (well what else?). I wouldn't call Chennai a party town, and it wasn't long before we headed off to another hotel with a later closing time. I'll have to edit this to let you know the name of the second hotel. I can't for the life of me think what it was called right now. Anyway, a few rounds later and it was back to get some sleep. Tomorrow was to be a long and interesting day!

17 March 2011. St. Patrick's Day, but no sign of shamrock or anything much else green in Chennai. Leisurely breakfast followed by a brief trip to the local mall. Back for a bit of sun round the pool and some lunch. Then change into our official uniform of Hawaiian shirts, dodgy Panama-style hats, shorts and flip-flops.

We headed off for the 14:30 start at around 13:30, in a convoy of auto-rickshaws. They are way better than regular cabs for getting out and seing a bit of the city. They only seat two, but great, if a bit hairy, fun. Walk around the ground, probably three-quarters of it, trying to find our gate. Finally get there and through the obligatory scanner. The airport had a scanner, as did the hotel, the mall and now the cricket. Not a lot is taken for granted as far as security is concerned here. Well, nearly, there's a bit more to come on that.

In the ground for about 14:10 and the anthems follow. England won the toss and decided to bat. They started like a train. I can't remember exact scores, but going well above where I thought they'd be. Middle overs were a bit dull, as we lost wickets for not many runs, but we did manage to find oursleves on TV at least a couple of times. In the absence of the Barmy Army, we were probably the most garishly dressed and loudest fans. A disappointing total of 243 meant it was going to be tough to defend.

The Windies started better than we did. They were nonchalantly smacking the bopys for sixes and fours, like they had a bus waiting and wanted to be on it. Then a wicket fell, a breakthrough with 58 on the board. Chris Gayle was gone. Then another wicket and it was game on. The trouble was that evry batsman who emerged seemed to have the ability to thrash the ball over the boundary almost at will. The Windies only seem to play one way and that can't be described as defensive!

After the scorching start, it was suddenly 150-6 and England's game to take. Sarwan and Russell though, had other ideas and steered their team to within 22 runs of victory with around three an over required. During this time, Bopara dropped a catchable catch which would surely have won the game for England and then a great catch on the long on boundary was adjudged to be a six after a third umpire review said that the fielder had touched the boundary rope. We were over 100m away from that and couldn't see it, so I'll have to reserve judgement. Well we thought that was definitely it. Everything was going against England. Then Tredwell, who had bowled very well, having removed both openers, trapped Russell lbw. It wasn't much of a glimmer really and we were still waiting for the inevitable defeat.

Now here's where it got a bit interesting for a different reason. Some of our party had earlier decided to take some booze into the ground. Not allowed, but they managed to get away with it. So security didn't detect everything. They polished off everything they brought but the bottles were still in a bag nearby. Someone must have told the cops, as we were suddenly almost surrounded by high ranking officers asking us if we wouldn't mind stepping outside. After a polite exchange lasting several minutes, with them asking and us politley declining their kind invitation, they left us alone to watch the rest of the match. Just to say, the boys were not drunk and not causing any trouble, it's just rules are rules and they had been broken.

So back to the cricket and within minutes, Swann had Sarwan, with Bell taking a really good catch. Now it was getting a bit more interesting. The Windies still needed 20 and now had 2 wickets left. Still plenty of overs to spare, but it wasn't going to go the distance. That had been established fairly early on. Either they would knock the runs off or we would bowl them out.

So, with men all around the batsmen, in came fast bowler Roach and out went fast bowler Roach. Still 20 runs required and now one wicket left. We were stunned. It was only going to go one way now and England wrapped it up, courtesy of a comedy run-out. So England live to fight on if Bangladesh lose their next match against South Africa or the West Indies don't beat India.

We hightailed it out of there pretty quickly and back to a convoy of auto-rickshaws. Me "Sheraton please". Driver "Which one". Me "I don't know, the one where England are staying". Driver "OK". Rough translation, "I've no idea either but I'm not going to tell you that". So after a stop to ask questions, we do get to the Sheraton quite quickly to be told no shorts in the bar, but we can get beer in the coffee shop. Of course we can, how silly of me!

And we wait, and we order some food, and we have a beer, and we wiat and then the West Indies team arrive so we give them a clap and tell them how unlucky they were. They don't seem too impressed.

David Lloyd's now wandering about, seemingly in a daze. We tell him that Mr. Boycott said that England are rubbish (that's what he told us) and Mr. Lloyd says what a nice man Mr. Boycott is. I don't think he really meant it though. And we wait a bit more, tuck into some of that food, back to see umpires making their way into the hotel. One of them tells us he saw us on the big screen.

And we wait some more, finish off the food and a bit more beer. And finally the England team come in. We applaud loudly, congratulate them on their win and...well not much in response really. Strauss says nothing. Tremlett (Who was awful) has no right to say anything. Luke Wright gives us a big smile. He must have been very happy though as we played well with both bat and ball. Swann gave us a big smile, as did Tredwell.

And we got back to the coffee bar. Then after a while, one of the England lads wandered by, separated from us by a glass wall. He seemed to point in the direction he was going in, so we quickly got the bill, sent a couple of the boys ahead to see what was going on, and then we were in the hotel club. Most of the players were in there, but kept themselves pretty much to themselves. A photo was taken, but I must have been elsewhere at the time, as I dond't know anything about it until shown it. Gutted.

And then Chennai became a party town. We left around 03:00, not bad seeing as our plane left at 09:40 later that morning. Auto-rickshaw appeared by magic in an otherwise deserted street and in we got. Others in the party not so lucky and some didn't make it back for another hour. I on the other hand, was in bed fifteen minutes later.

06:30 alarm, shower, etc. quick breakfast and out. My voice has gone by this stage. Check in, no upgrade this time. Boo! Very uneventful, if virtually full flight. Arrived back into Dubai a little early to find my family there to pick me up. A great and unexpected surprise. So quite a lot crammed into what was I think 37 hours in India. Would I do it again? Oh yes.
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Old 18 Mar 11, 07:23 PM  
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Jet
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I dont know anything about Cricket...but I do love India!

Jean
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Old 18 Mar 11, 07:23 PM  
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This thread has been automatically closed as it has not been posted on in 365 days.
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