England opening batsman will go down in Sahara Stadium record books for hitting the maiden four, six and fifty
With this being the first ever international game played at the Subrata Roy Sahara cricket stadium, quite a few ‘firsts’ were scored yesterday in the T20 game between India and England. Ashok Dinda bowled the first ball in an international game here, while R Ashwin got the first wicket.
Nottinghamshire batsman Alex Hales scored a number of firsts, facing the first ball, hitting the first four, first six and first fifty in an international game at this venue.
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The Subrata Roy Sahara cricket stadium saw a near capacity crowd yesterday, as predicted. With Pune not having seen any international cricket for seven years, the tickets sold like pan cakes, and were sold out well in advance of the game.
The crowd reserved it best cheers for “their” home skipper Yuvraj Singh, who couldn’t play any of the eight IPL games Pune Warriors India played at this stadium earlier this year. And the man from Punjab didn’t disappoint either, taking three crucial wickets to pull India right back in the contest.
Apart from making its debut as the latest cricket stadium to have hosted an international cricket game, Subrata Roy Sahara cricket stadium also hosted the first ever game under floodlights in Pune. The previous international venue in the city, the Nehru Stadium, didn’t have floodlights, and hence, hosted only day games.
The Maharashtra Cricket Association, hosts of the game, have made sure that the game is a superb commercial success. The in-stadia advertisement rights for the game have been sold for a whopping Rs 2.1 crore, and according to the MCA president Ajay Shirke, the total profit out of this game is likely to be between Rs eight to nine crores.u00a0