Cause of Delhi belly? Chennai butter-chicken on suspect list

Quinton De Kock, who made a gritty century, was one of the players who were hospitalised. (Source: PTI)

The 10 South African players who were hospitalized on Sunday due to a bout of stomach poisoning were discharged from the hospital on Monday evening and are fit to take on the Australians on Tuesday. It is learnt that the offending piece of food that triggered the bout of Delhi belly was either butter chicken or pizza, which the players had had on Saturday evening.

Many players felt uneasy on Sunday morning and soon it reached a stage where they had to request India A coach Rahul Dravid to allow Mandeep Singh to field as they were short of fit men. At one stage, they even had to field their video analyst Henrikus Coertzen. Three reserve players, who too were struggling, had to field and even they had to be later rushed to the hospital.

Quinton de Kock, dropped from South Africa’s Test team, was rushed into action less than 24 hours after arriving in India and responded with a century but also needed to be hospitalised after the game.

Longer boundaries

Wilting under the attack of aggressive batsmen like Joe Burns, the Indian team management requested Tamil Nadu Cricket Association to increase the size of the boundaries. TNCA agreed and made the change for India’s game against South Africa A on Sunday. The decision was taken after Australia A opener Burns smashed the Indians for 14 sixes on August 7. Though he didn’t directly talk about the boundary ropes, India A coach Dravid stated his desire for greater balance between ball and bat.

“We bowled a bit too quick in the first game and credit to the batsmen as well. We want to see a good contest between bat and ball,” Dravid had said.