BHUBANESWAR: New Zealand blind cricket team arrived here on Monday to play a match of the second T20 World Cup Cricket for the Blind against India on Tuesday. The international match will be played at the KIIT stadium here at 10 am on Tuesday.
Indian blind cricket team also reached the city in the evening. The team is hopeful for a victory against the New Zealand team. The Indian team has already won six league matches out of seven in the T20 World Cup. But the New Zealand team is yet to win a match in the tournament.
The players were welcomed by the officials from
Cricket Association for the Blind in India
(CABI), Cricket Association for the Visually Impaired Odisha (
CAVI Odisha
), and the Brand Ambassador for Cricket for the Blind in Odisha and Odia actor
Sabyasachi Mishra.
New Zealand cricket team captain
James Dunn said his team will try to play well in the match. He said their team is a full of young talented players. "It is difficult to face the defending world champion India in their home ground. We made our homework to face them in the league match of the T20 World Cup here," said Dunn.
Indian team captain
Ajay Reddy
said India is playing very well. "We are so excited for the Tuesday match. We have already won six matches out of seven league matches in the T20 World Cup. We will try to win the rest of the matches to stay number one in the point table," said Reddy.
Two Odias are playing in the India team. They are Md
Jafar Iqbal
and Sukhram Majhi. Sukhram has scored 67 run against Australia in the league match and Jafar scored 50 run against South Africa in the world cup. While Jafar has been part of the national team since 2011, Sukhram played a key role in India's victory against Pakistan in the Asia cup in January, 2016.
A total of 48 matches will be played throughout the tournament. The final of the tournament will be played between the top two teams after the completion of league rounds at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on February 12.
Hemanta Pradhan writes for the Times of India on education, hospi...
Read MoreHemanta Pradhan writes for the Times of India on education, hospital issues, transport, agriculture & tribal affairs. He has been working as a journalist since 2011. He has a PG degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from Berhampur University. He has won Laadli Media Awards for gender sensitivity.
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