Barabati Stadium Jam Packed For Team India’s Net Practice Session; England Players Go Golfing

Cuttack: Ahead of the second ODI of the 3-match series between India and England, Barabati Stadium in Odisha’s Cuttack was chock-a-block on Saturday with fans, who gathered in large numbers to catch a glimpse of the Men in Blue during the net practice session.

Long queues were seen at the stadium since afternoon with many excited to see their favourite players in the city after a gap of almost 5 years, having failed to get tickets to watch them live during the ‘Super Sunday’ clash.

The ‘Josh’ among the cricket enthusiasts here can be gauged from the fact that several had made beeline to the stadium on Thursday with a hope of laying their hands on the elusive entry pass to the ground for the India-England ODI, though all 11,080 offline tickets for the general public were sold out a day earlier. Wednesday also saw a a stampede-like situation at the overcrowded ticket counters as fans jostled for offline tickets after waiting for almost 14 hours, leaving around 10 people falling unconscious.

On February 2, 4,000 tickets for online sale were sold out within 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, members of Team England skipped their net practice and instead headed for Bhubaneswar Golf Club on Saturday. Captain Jos Buttler accompanied by Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Matthew Short, and Jamie Overton enjoyed nearly two-hour-long golf session, according to reports.

Early this morning, three Indian players – Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Axar Patel – also visited Shree Jagannath Temple amid tight security and sought blessings of the sibling deities.

The two teams arrived in the capital city on Friday and were accorded a rousing welcome by the cricket fans and Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) officials right from the Biju Patnaik International Airport to their hotel.