On to Naggers
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2006
1
5
85
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Nagpur,
India
Monday, March 6, 2006
Hussey had kindly sorted out a twin room at the exotically titled Hotel Blue Diamond in Central Nagpur...absolute shithole - 140 roops a night - and riddled with bedbugs, but hey who cares when a new Test series is about to start. The usual characters were evident in the Blue Diamonds bar on the eve of the game...Welsh Steve, Mansfield Chris, Clarky, Hoover, Lindsay etc etc.
Up early the following day to procure my tickets off Paul and Sarah-Jane...last seen dashing from Lahore prior to Christmas (lucky to miss out on the last day collapse).
Well much of the test was spent with Paul, Sarah-Jane and Debs in the North West stand, excellent views, although soured slightly by the confiscation of Pepsi, water bottles, newspapers, books and even mobiles(not a bad thing) by the overexcited Indian stewards/police at the ground...who even managed to drink my 2 litre Pepsi on Day 3, and after much investigation I found out who the guilty police official was....although all I got was an Indian head wobble, and a smile off the thieving git
01 - First shot of the trip...Collingwood ton!
!Most evenings were spent eating excellent veggie food with Paul, SJ, Debs and Hussey around town..with a few bottles of Kingfisher thrown in.
Briefly the match..England bat first, giving debuts to Cook, Blackwell, Panesar...Collingwood gets his first Test hundred. Jaffer his first for India in reply. The match boiled down to a final day 'run chase' by the Indians...although we had to wait till after tea for the excitement to kick in...wickets fell, India went after the spinners, the field spread, and we had Flintoff and Harmison charging in...India eventually fell well short. Hoggy ended up with the Man of the Match award, much to the delight of his fan club members in the stand...and celebrated with an impromptu race round the outfield on his newly acquired Honda (to be copied ad nauseum throughout the remainder of the tour by MS Dhoni..what a clown!)
Anyway, excellent test in Naggers...hopefully more of the same in Chandigarh.
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