Day 4(Cricket):
We woke up to the sound of heavy rain, not a sound I like to hear ever, never mind when on vacation. The fact that today we were due to head back to Colombo to watch the first ODI Cricket Test between Sri Lanka and England meant that the rain was an added source of frustration. On checking many weather websites, the forecast for most of Sri Lanka wasn’t good; however there seemed to be some possibility of dry weather in Colombo. After discussing with Bandu, we decided to risk it and head to Colombo and maybe catch a couple of hours of rain-interrupted play.
On arrival at the Stadium there was light rain, which meant the covers stayed on and a small gathering of optimistic cricket fans waited and prayed for the rain to disappear. About an hour later we got what we all wished and the rain stopped, the covers went back and the players’ came out for warm up. At $7 a ticket we were happy to see a few hours of play but the rain gods obviously like cricket and it stayed away for the whole duration of the game.
A few $1.50 beers always help when watching cricket, it’s not my favourite sport and this was Aida’s first (and probably last) game. England won the toss and chose to field first. The crowd started to get bigger as people realized that the rain was staying away and as many finished work and they got louder and louder as the Lions started to rack up a big score. 317 after 50 overs meant England had lots to do and sadly they came up 25 runs short. We left after 15 overs of England’s innings (about 9pm) as we had to get back to Kandy, which would take just shy of 3 hours. A great experience to have, just wished it was 20/20!