BIRMINGHAM: Known as the bullring of England cricket, Edgbaston has been the most passionate ground here. And much of the noise comes from Eric Hollies stand, named after the former Warwickshire cricketer mainly known for dismissing Don Bradman for a duck in the Aussie legend’s farewell innings. It can be quite intimidating for a visiting team when the Hollies is packed to the rafters. But it was the other way around on Sunday. It was England who were facing the heat from the boisterous Indian fans, armed with drums and trumpets, who took over the Hollies. Indian flags heavily outnumbered the Saint George’s Cross.
Such sparse was local supporters, former England captain Michael Vaughan suggested that they could easily be counted. “So far we have counted 86 England fans at Edgbaston, Including the team & management,” tweeted Vaughan.
KP bumps into Kohli
A day after taking a dig at Virat Kohli for delaying Rishabh Pant’s World Cup debut, former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen had a long chat with the Indian skipper in the middle, just before the toss. The conversation between the former RCB teammates looked quite animated, but Pietersen said they didn’t speak anything about cricket.
“I never asked him about what’s happening today, I was just talking to him about life and about London,” KP said on air.
Pietersen, who has been a vocal supporter of Pant, would have been delighted to see the dashing batsman in the playing XI. On the match eve, Kohli had backed Vijay Shankar to hold on to his spot in the XI, but a toe niggle ruled him out of Sunday’s match.
