Indian, Australian teams reach Mumbai safely

The Indian and Australian cricket teams finally reached Mumbai afternoon after their charted aircraft returned to Nagpur with a bird-hit ten minutes after the take-off in the morning.

Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah confirmed the two teams had reached Mumbai safely for the seventh and final One-Day International, to be played here Wednesday.

"The two teams have reached here," Shah told IANS at the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) headquarters.

The Nagpur-Mumbai chartered flight, carrying the two cricket teams, too off at 9.40 a.m. but ten minutes later had to make an emergency landing at Nagpur after the bird hit the aircraft. The cricketers returned to the hotel where they had been put up for the sixth ODI that India lost to the world champions Sunday.

A special aircraft was sent to Nagpur from Mumbai in the afternoon to fetch the players.

In the afternoon, Indian team coach Lalchand Rajput, who reached Mumbai along with a few Indian players in an earlier flight, visited the Wankhede Stadium for a look at the pitch.

Rajput, chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar, curator Sudhir Naik and Dhiraj Parsana, a member of the BCCI's ground and wicket committee, took a quick look at the pitch.

"Looks good," Vengsarkar said, turning to Naik.

While they inspected the pitch, the ground staff was busy using mowers to make the lush green outfield even.