Infectious cricket fever has gripped the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar as the Barabati Stadium is all set to host the twenty20 international on Tuesday.
With Team India clinching the ODI series at 2-1, the cricket crazy spectators here pin the hope of an exciting tie between the two teams and expect the Surya Kumar Yadav led home team getting the better of the proteas.
Meanwhile, the Indian cricketers had a gruelling net session today at noon ahead of the all-important Twenty20 series opener. The proteas are scheduled to arrive at the Barabati stadium in the afternoon hours. Security has been stepped up at the stadium to keep a tab on cricket crazy crowds, said Odisha Cricket Association officials.
“We definitely wish for India’s victory. Still we want a swashbuckling style of cricket from South Africa. The belligerent stroke play of visitors’ batters will be a treat to watch,” said a cricket enthusiast, Rajratan Swain, who managed to buy a gallery ticket yesterday after remaining in queue for almost 7 hours.
We hope the Barabati crowd will witness glimpses of vintage Surya Kumar, Abhisek Sharma, Tilak Verma, Quinton de kock, David Miller and Marco Jansen. It is going to be a tall scoring match and spectators will relish the blistering stroke play from both the sides, said another cricket lover.
I hope the pitch at Barabati will be a sportive wicket to provide scope to both the batters and bowlers to excel. I am a fan of India speedster Bumrah. I want him to take wickets in the allotted four overs, remarked Shyamkant Rout, a cricket enthusiast.