But after that, once again, India went into meek capitulation. It's not like the wicket had any devils, but the discipline among the Australian bowlers to get into the good areas just got to the Indians. Having said that, the one thing that made the day bearable was Tendulkar's innings. It was sublime and dominating. But again - against the run of play, he was gone! Going back to the theory of winning sessions, after day 2 - Australia is up 4-2 after taking all 3 sessions today.
The day was also studded with other interesting observations...
1) Cricket watching in Australia is a pleasure. As against India, where it's a pain to get tickets to the game, get to the stadium, get into the stadium, find a seat, find food and water, deal with security... everything, here it is seamless and an ABSOLUTE PLEASURE!
2) The crowds were very boisterous.. especially in the section we were seated in during the first 2 sessions. Smack in the middle of the Swami Army. Chants ranged from the usual "Sachin Sachin", to the offensive "Show us your passports / Show us your handcuffs" (directed at the Indians by the Aussies and to the Aussies by the Indians respectively.... or should I say disrespectively), to the absurd "You are a wanker".
3) The security guys were sensible. Unlike in India, where every security person seems to be on a power trip, weilding his "lathi" where he can, these guys had the crowd under control while providing a long leash. They'd let a lot of things to pass off as fun while ejecting the odd ball out of the stadium to reinforce who was in charge.
Anyway - after the game we had a bit of an adventure with the Melbourne railways to get back to our hotel to freshen up and then headed out to the next big treat of the night...
Watched Phantom of the Opera at this quaint old theater - Princess Theater. It was absolutely outstanding. The music and elaborate sets combined to make this a very haunting and moving experience. It was stunningly beautiful. Beautiful enough to bring a tear to Vikas' eyes. :) Enough said.
This still wasn't the end of the day. We capped it off with dinner at a very average Italian place, followed by Karaoke (led by A), where Andy rocked the show, followed by Odeon - a club at the Crown Entertainment complex and lastly Bangalore and me (for some strange inexplicable reasons) hanging out at the casino, watching Lal lose money and Vikas win money at poker, inspite of our sleep deprived states.
All in all, the cricket was salvaged by Sachin's innings, the evening was fantastic, we are all very tired and are likely to sleep in.
I'm not going to hazard a fearless forecast for tomorrow. It hurts too much.
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