Cuttack, Oct. 1: Sarat Chandra Badnayak, 21, had travelled all the way from Gajapati and stayed awake through the night to ensure a ringside view of Monday's clash of titans.

"I had arrived in Cuttack at midnight. I had to stand in the queue from 4am to 11am to get my ticket," said Badnayak while flaunting his ticket.

Badnayak was not alone. Cricket lovers from across the state today thronged the Barabati Stadium to grab tickets for the much-awaited T20 tie between India and South Africa.

Over 10,000 enthusiasts made a beeline to the counter on the opening day to buy tickets for the maiden international match at the stadium.

Officials of Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) said nearly 12,000 tickets were earmarked for sale through three public counters and around 9,000 were already sold by 7pm.

Sale would continue till 9pm or 10pm, and if the target is not achieved today, the counter will again open on October 3.

Rajendra Kadam Sethi, 23, another spectator from Rayagada, said he would expect the match to be a high-scoring one.

With cricket fever running high, black marketers had a field day. Several fans avoided the long serpentines queues and opted to buy gallery tickets from them at high price.

"I had arrived at the stadium at 10am and there was a heavy rush outside the counters Instead of standing in the long queue, I purchased two tickets by paying nearly Rs 300 extra," said Kishore Das, a resident of Bhubaneswar.

Das said three to four youths were selling mostly gallery tickets and charged Rs 150 to Rs 300 extra for a ticket.

Sources in the OCA also admitted that not a single association in the country could control the menace of black marketing.

Moreover, as the prices of gallery tickets generally remain the same, there is usually a heavy demand for gallery Nos. 1, 3, 5, which are located close to the outfield.

Deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora, however, said that no incident of black marketing of tickets had come to their notice and a strict vigil would be kept on such illegal activities near the stadium.

"We had deployed nearly five platoons of police to regulate traffic as well as ensure that the spectators do not face problems in purchasing tickets from the counters," said Arora.

"So far, the public sale of tickets has received positive response as over 7,000 tickets were sold by 5pm. We have decided to open the counters till the end of tickets till 9pm tonight," said OCA secretary Ashirbad Behera.

With a few days to go for the big match preparations are also in full swing.

Senior police officials and cricket association members conducted a joint inspection of Barabati Stadium and also checked the functioning of the floodlights. Police commissioner R.P. Sharma had said that nearly 60 platoons of police would be deployed for the security of players. Altogether 150 CCTV cameras would be installed in and around the stadium to keep tabs on the movement of suspicious people.