By IANS,
Bangalore: For about 5,000-odd fans who defied a hot Sunday afternoon to watch underdogs Kenya take on mighty Australia in the World Cup at the Chinnaswamy stadium in this tech hub, the Group A low-profile match turned to be a battle royal between David and Goliath.
When Aussies began their innings after skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat, with openers Brad Haddin and Shane Watson scoring at will to post 35 runs on board in the first five overs, the spirited fans rooted for the Kenyan team and egged them on to stem the flow.
Though Australia scored a mammoth 324 from 50 overs, there were phases in the game that transformed into a see-saw battle between the bat and the ball, the with Kenyans pulling out all stops to contain their opponents.
Vice captain Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey, who returned to the squad midway in place of injured Doug Bollinger, swung back the game in their favour by stepping up the score with quick singles and twos.
“We came to watch this game match as were not lucky to get tickets for the India matches as they were not only sold out in advance, but also priced high even in the black market. It’s great to see the Aussies bat. But we are impressed by the Kenyans putting up a fight,” Victor Samson, 27, a fashion designer, told IANS in the stands.
As in the case of the England-Ireland fixture March 2, there were no takers for this league match, with rows of empty chairs across the stadium and the police lazing around.
Meanwhile, the hosts – Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) – were forced to keep the counters open for the second half, hoping to hardsell a few hundred tickets to uninitiated fans on a Sunday outing at the stadium.