India, Australia cricket teams arrive in Kolkata

Kolkata, Sep 18 (CRICKETNMORE): The Indian and Australian cricket teams arrived in the city amidst high security on Monday for their second One-day International (ODI) to be played at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.

After registering a 26-run victory via the Duckworth-Lewis method over Australia in the opener, Virat Kohli and Co looked confident as around 500 supporters cheered the men in blue as they came out of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport and entered the team bus in the afternoon followed by the Australian players.

"Around 17,000 tickets are still to be sold. There are still more than three days to go and we expect around 12,000 to 17,000 tickets to be sold if the weather holds on," a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) official said about ticket sales.

The colossal Eden Gardens has a capacity of 66,349. The eastern metropolis experienced heavy rainfall in the wee hours of Monday morning and chances of a downpour cannot be ruled out on Thursday.

On Sunday, India rode on Hardik Pandya's all-round brilliance to thrash Australia in a rain-truncated opener of the five-match ODI series at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

After guiding India to safety with a career-best 83 off 66 balls, the 23-year-old Pandya starred with the ball, picking the key wickets of Australia skipper Steve Smith (1) and Travis Head (5) to enable the hosts go 1-0 up in the series.

Replying to India's 281/7, the Aussies were chasing a revised target of 164 from 21 overs via the Duckworth-Lewis method after a spell of heavy showers shortened play.