Sticky Wicket

Since first taking up the sport of cricket while living in Germany, Dave has been trying to figure out a way to see an international match in person. India seemed to be the perfect place to make this happen. The Australian cricket has been touring India this fall, so we thought we'd give it a try. After school on Friday, we took a taxi to Dehradun with our friends to catch the overnight train to Delhi. The train ended up arriving about two hours late and made it to Delhi about three hours late, but our spirits were not dampened. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we made a quick trip to the American embassy club. This is one of the few places in the country where one can get good American food. We filled up on hamburgers, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, root beer, and curly fries. It was fantastic!

After lunch, it was off to the stadium in Delhi for the match. The security was very tight and we had three checkpoints that we made it through successfully. At the fourth security checkpoint, the guards decided that we were not allowed to bring anything into the stadium. This inlcuded cameras, phones, backpacks, keys, and anything else we had in our pockets. As we sat trying to convince the guards to let us in with our stuff, we watched wave after wave of Indians being allowed to walk through with bags full of the things we were asked to leave behind. In the end, we were unsuccessful and two of our number had to return to the hotel with our bags. Since we were not allowed cameras, we've put a couple of highlights from Cricinfo.com on the blog to give you an idea of the fun we had.

It was an exciting close match. The series had been tied 1-1 at the beginning and India won this match by 6 wickets with only ten balls remaining. It was great fun. The only cricket-related picture that we were able to capture was one of the two of us wearing our cricket jerseys in the hotel after the match was over.

In spite of a few difficulties along the way, it was a great trip all around.

Dave and Beth