Rain denies MS Dhoni & co an outdoor session ahead of tour tie
Rain deniesu00a0MS Dhoni & co an outdoor session ahead of tour tie
The citizens of Northampton county will treat the visiting Indian cricket team like royalty, but the weather and opponents have other ideas.
Yesterday, rain denied Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team from an open air training session and Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina ended up facing local bowlers in an indoor facility at the Northampton County Cricket Club ground. India play Northamptonshire county in a two-day fixture here today.
Virender Sehwag, who has recovered from a shoulder injury
Sehwag, who joined the team after shoulder surgery, was undoubtedly the main attraction. The session was not a very intense one although Tendulkar spent a while receiving tennis balls from fielding coach Trevor Penney. The team manager informed the media that it was an optional practice session. Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth and the injured players, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh stayed away.
The weather did not improve after the Indians left the ground. The rain came down harder and it would have done the outfield more harm although there is good weather predicted for today.
Meanwhile, team bosses were in no mood for any public relations exercise what with the team being criticised from all quarters. A player normally talks to the media before a game. No luck this time. "Loss of performance, loss of words," as one Smart Alec put it yesterday.
An Indian restaurant owner was quoted in the local newspaper yesterday saying he would like to dish out the best fare to the team. "I would be star-struck but I would put on a really traditional seven-course dinner with champagne. It would be like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie," said Mohammed Ahmin.
Meanwhile, Northants captain and South African international, Andrew Hall said his bowling attack will not hold anything back when it comes to playing the Indian team which is 0-2 down in the Test series. The third Test at Edgbaston starts on Wednesday.
Northants will be keen to get back into a winning mode after Wednesday's loss to Surrey Lions by 12 runs in their Clydesdale Bank 40 clash. Hall, who played a Test series against India in 2004-05, told BBC recently, "We've got a strong (bowling) line-up that can really keep them down and get wickets. It's going to be good to get in there, work them over and get some wicketsu00a0-- to put guys under pressure. We don't want them to have it all their way."
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