Johannesburg: Mamatha Maben of Thatscricket.com is a part of the Indian women's team that is on a current tour of South Africa. Apart from interviews and reports, Maben will also be presenting the 'other side' of the tour through diary articles. The following is the second Tour diary: March 07: Our first One-day International and there was an air of expectancy. We were welcomed on to the ground (Lenasia Cricket Stadium) with quite a bit of crowd (by South African standards) in the stadium - most of them school children. The children created quite a bit of din cheering, singing and stomping their feet on the metal stands. We started off very well but frittered away the advantage and ended up chasing, if not a daunting task, at least a challenging one. However, rain played spoil sport as we could bat only for four overs. It was back to the hotel and some rest. March 08: We rested all through the morning and then went out for some shopping. I stepped into the parlour to do some browsing while the others shopped in the Sandton Square Mall, which is huge shopping complex situated bang in front of our hotel. Incidentally, we are housed in a very posh locality. We returned around lunchtime. We order our food from an Indian restaurant know as Bismillah. Since we had an off day we decided to go to the restaurant ourselves. We set out around 14: 30 hours (local time), but we did not head straight for lunch since we had to drop in at the Wanderers where the UCBSA is housed. What a lovely stadium and experience that turned out to be! There was a regional match going on and within five minutes of our entering the stadium the giant electronic scored board flashed a welcome message, "Wanderers welcomes the Indian national women's cricket team," and that felt good. I must say that the South Africans have been very friendly and hospitable - especially the South African cricketers. They have been extremely friendly. Because of the Wanderers agenda we had a late lunch - very late indeed, around 17:00 hours (local time), as we also stepped into the cricket shop at the stadium. Around 18:30 hours (local time) we then hopped into a radio station as our captain was to have a chat show on the occasion of "International women's day". It was a brilliant idea and the show, which lasted half an hour turned out to be nice. After which it was back home. March 09: It was time for some good practice and the first part of the day was spent honing our skills. Since all of us were tired we decided that we would head back home. We, however, did have our lunch and returned home around 14:00 hours (local time). A lot of time is spent traveling over here, as the distance between places is pretty long. We spend a minimum of 45 to 60 minutes traveling from place to place. We then returned to the Mall to do some shopping. We returned home early for some good rest and to get mentally prepared for our second game. Extras:
SA wins 2nd One-day on Duckworth/Lewis
Tour Diary 1: Missing baggage, the first blip for girls
India, SA first one-dayer washed out due to rain
Detailed itinerary of women's team in SA

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