Postcard from India - part three

Mick Hume and I were lucky enough to be given tickets for the India-Australia Test match. And so, shortly after two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, we set off on foot for the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium a mile or so away. OK, so it wasn't St John's Wood and Lords but it was an enjoyable experience nevertheless.

Security was tight - we were searched by armed guards when we arrived - and inside this great concrete bowl of a stadium around 20,000 Indians were watching an absorbing match.

(Note to non-cricket followers: the Bangalore Test is the second in a two-Test series. India won the first match by one wicket, which is as close as you can get to losing. Owing to the popularity of one day internationals and T20 cricket, Test matches in India struggle to attract large crowds. The Bangalore Test was an exception. On Saturday and Sunday the stadium was two-thirds full.)

As far as we could tell we were the only non-Indians in the stadium, apart from the corporate area. Our section, nominally reserved for Australian supporters, was full of Indian fans who chanted, waved national flags and did the Mexican wave. There wasn't an Aussie in sight.

On our way to our seats (red plastic garden chairs that could be moved to get a better view) we passed trestle tables that bore the weight of gas cookers and large plastic water containers. Vegetables lay on the hard concrete floor and the smell of curry was in the air.

Pepsi was widely available but - despite the ads that appeared on the electronic scoreboard - there was no sign of any beer, Kingfisher or otherwise. Worried about drinking the water, we sat parched and thirsty.

I imagined how it must have been when English cricket teams came out here 50 or 80 years ago. Some experience, I bet. The heat, the hostility (in some but not all quarters). Even the great Ricky Ponting, the current Australian captain, has never won a Test match in India and the way things are going in the second Test I don't think he ever will.

Update: the Australians have fought back ever so well on Day 4. Forced however to go for quick runs in their second innings they have lost wickets at regular intervals. Odds on an Indian victory but if the Aussies get some early wickets in the second Indian innings anything's possible. Watch THIS space.

Below: the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday