Search This Blog

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Rose Bowl, Southampton - Super marine Spit Fire and Manoj Tiwary


When India played well, it rained and denied them their elusive first victory of the tournament.  In a few minutes from now, India would play the Second ODI and would this attacking batsman play and make some difference is the Q.  In Feb 2008, he made his debut at Woolloongabba, Brisbane and found that International cricket is different.  He was all at bay and Brett Lee castled him for 2 ending his uncomfortable stay.  After that he has played two more, has a total of 26 runs to his credit.  It is his reputation and success at IPL that has brought him to the fore now. 

You might have read about the  ‘the Supermarine Spitfire’  a British single-seat fighter aircraft which was used by the Royal Air Force and  allied countries during  the Second World War.  It was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft. 

The man referred to in the first para is Manoj Tiwary who has taken multiple flights in short time and has landed down at London.  He is the replacement for the injured Rohit Sharma who has a fractured right index and damaged reputation.   Adding to the long list of injuries is Sachin Tendulkar who sadly has been ruled out of the remainder of India's tour of England, and is likely to miss Mumbai Indians' Champions League campaign as well due to an inflamed big toe on his right foot. S Badrinath, the Tamil Nadu batsman, has been named as Tendulkar's replacement.  Tendulya’s injury is stated to be an aggravation of a former fracture, flared up on the eve of the first ODI at Chester-le-Street.  This has been a disastrous and frustrating tour for Sachin (for anybody else 273 @ 34.12 average and high of 91 would have been good !)  Indians have been rocked by series of injuries and some inexcusable ordinary performance.

Today’s match is at Rose Bowl which is in Southampton, England.  It is home ground of Hampshire. Southampton  is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, situated 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-west of London and 30 kilometres (19 mi) north-west of Portsmouth.  Southampton is one of the UK’s busiest and most important ports, and a principal driver in the regional economy. It handles in excess of 42 million tonnes of cargo annually – or around seven per cent of the UK’s entire seaborne trade – and is the main gateway for Far East imports. The port is also widely recognised as the capital of the country’s cruise industry, and each year more and more cruise liners take advantage of Southampton’s superb cruise terminals.

The city is deeply connected to the Cunard Line and their fleet of ships, which are the only passenger vessels to be registered here (having "Southampton" on the stern). In the spring of 2009, a fourth Cruise Terminal was opened in Southampton and Carnival Corporation & plc moved the headquarters of Carnival UK to Southampton. Many of the world's largest cruise ships  regularly can be seen in Southampton Waters.

Ironically, RMS Titanic (of the movie fame) – a passenger liner that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage was built and launched from Southampton.    In Mar 1936,  the prototype (K5054) took off on its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). At the controls was Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers (Aviation) Ltd., who was reported in the press as saying "Don't touch anything" on landing – and that was that of the ‘super marine spitfire’.

So, will India win today ?

Regards – S. Sampthkumar

1 comment: