Back home in Adelaide, boiling in Brissie
Our correspondent takes in experiences familiar and new on the first leg of India's tour down under
"DO NOT USE cameras, sound recorders, mobile phones or electronic forms of communication in this area. Penalty $1000."
Drive to Macksville, Phillip Hughes' hometown, about 500km from Sydney. Hughes killed by a routine bouncer in a Shield game. Shock around Australia. Tests rescheduled. Funeral in Macksville in two days. Town's population under 3000. Will receive at least twice as many visitors on December 3.
Spend the night in Port Macquarie. Reminded of being in Gosford, another New South Wales town, on the last trip to Australia. In New South Wales, you get stuck and spend nights in strange places. Port Macquarie replaced Newcastle as a penal settlement. Now a retirement destination. Accordingly, town is dead by 8pm.
What have they done to good old Adelaide Oval? It has gone from an intimate ground to an almost intimidating stadium. Big stands all over. One over the top of the other. Cathedral not visible. Nor is the Torrens from the back corridors. Doesn't strike you as much on this day because people have gathered to pay respects to Hughes and watch his funeral on the big screens. His brother has endearing stories of playing cricket with him in the backyard. Cousin Nino Ramunno has great anecdotes.
Bus it down to Glenelg Oval. Locals shocked I have figured out Adelaide buses. They say they have never managed to do so. Explains the empty bus.
Park 25 Oval. Watch Australia train for the first time since Hughes' death. Nobody knows how they will react. They begin with fun and games. Dances. Brad Haddin and Ryan Harris waltz. David Warner pulls out the worm. Huddles done. Laughs shared. Warner goes into nets. Clearly not prepared for loneliness of batting. Pulls out after a few minutes of scratchy batting. Spends half an hour with team psychologist Michael Lloyd. There is a tear or three. It's going to be a difficult summer for everyone involved.
Good old Adelaide. Nothing has changed. Feels like coming back to a home town after having spent years away for work. Same friendly man at the Falafel House on Hindley Street still says "beautifuuuul" at every ingredient you ask for in your roll. Without looking up. Hookahs still being smoked all over Hindley Street as if it is rural Haryana. "Sitting in the same chair / As they were sitting in the last year / Talking about the crows / Crooooows," sang Paul Kelly in "Adelaide".
One change in Adelaide, though, thanks to the new stands at the Oval. The view of the city from the statue of Colonel Light was obstructed, so it had to be raised.
Julius. Security guard at Adelaide Oval. Of Sudanese origin. Worked in the Australian army in the early 2000s. Served for three years in Afghanistan. Talks of his experiences there. How they used to wear x-ray vision glasses, and had to shoot people, no questions asked, if they were suspected of carrying bombs in their clothing. "Doesn't matter if it is an old lady or a young child. Just shoot." Julius quit the army after that experience. Doesn't know much about cricket, but happy with a job that doesn't involve killing.
Emotional start to series. After all the tributes to Hughes, his mate David Warner scores a century. Batsmen pause on 63 - Hughes' score when he was killed. They look up on 100. They all believe their little mate is watching over them.
Rain slows game down. Time enough, though, for Steven Smith and Michael Clarke to bring up hundreds. Three of Hughes' best mates in the team have scored tons, although Clarke is playing in considerable pain.
Mitchell Johnson scones Virat Kohli first ball. Opposition captain in Australia. Hit smack on helmet badge. First ball he faces in Test cricket on tour. Minutes to go to lunch. Normally Australia would be all over him. Johnson would bowl all out, and come back fresh after lunch to finish Kohli off. Not now. Here they all come up to check on the batsman. Kohli finds it all surreal and waves everyone away. Johnson goes a little soft. Kohli scores a hundred. Big moment on tour. Johnson comes back towards the end of the day to bounce Kohli again, and gets him on the top edge.
Adelaide Oval has strange press-box dress code. Need collars on t-shirts. No thongs on feet. Struggle to get through Test with limited supplies of collared shirts. Wear New Zealand ODI jersey from early 2000s. Trouble is, it looks like a Port Adelaide jersey. Abused for wearing it at Crows' home ground. Apologised to and hugged when said people realise it is New Zealand and not Port Adelaide.
Mostly one-sided match has come to life because of twin declarations necessitated by rain on day two. India chase in spirited manner. Kohli scores another century. Only man other than Greg Chappell to make two on debut. M Vijay falls on 99. India collapse towards the end, but at 242 for 2 they had been a good chance to win. India can be proud of their batting, but need to remember they took only 12 wickets.
A certain sense of loss when leaving Adelaide. No ODI here on this tour. A certain sense of worry, too, for establishments on Hindley Street when India play Pakistan here in World Cup. Good job they have a police station right here.
Brisbane then. Third time zone entered already. Sydney is behind Adelaide, which is behind Brisbane. Neither does it make geographic sense nor do early dawns - as early at 4am - in Brisbane let you sleep in. Missing link here is day-light saving. Queensland doesn't want to save daylight. Which makes it a butt of jokes. Reasons for its refusing to save daylight, according to rest of Australia: some fear cattle won't give milk at unnatural times, some feel curtains will fade.
Kevin Mitchell Jr has been preparing the Gabba pitch for 34 years. Took over from Kevin Mitchell, his father. Remembers the days of the old hill. Old scoreboard wasn't visible from all parts of the hill. Spectators would go over to the scoreboard and signal the scores to the rest as if playing dumb charades.
A proper Brisbane stinker. Phone app says 42 degrees. Channel Nine says 36 degrees. India win toss and bat first. A flat Gabba wicket is anti-climactic. Can see why, though. One of Australia's most unsure batting line-ups, considering Clarke is out with a hamstring injury.
Before start of play, on air, Ian Chappell is worried about overnight batsman Rohit Sharma, who "bats like in a dream", or "in a net with no focus on scoring runs". A dreamy push at a wide delivery from Shane Watson triggers a collapse, and given India have scored runs at a fair clip, they haven't batted Australia out despite scoring 408. Later in the day, Watson does a Rohit Sharma, and hits powerfully to mid-on without making an effort to keep it down or clear the man. Two men who won't want this - and massive scores in ODIs and T20Is - to be the stories of their lives.
"How many wickets have you got?" is the question Mitchell Johnson is asked before he is bounced by India. Johnson hasn't got any, but the sledging seems to have woken the beast. He smacks 88 impactful runs to snatch the game clean out of India's grasp. When he gets to 50, he looks around at every Indian player. None are sledging. Like a wrestler who has just cleared the field in the middle of a Royal Rumble match.
A strange morning with injuries to two Indian batsmen in the nets. An unsettled side crashes to defeat but not without a fight after an initial collapse. India have shown much better resolve than on the last trip, but halfway into the series the scoreline reads the same: 0-2.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo