Adam's eyes

This is one of my favourite cricket photographs. Australia had just won the Nagpur Test which gave them an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series. Ricky Ponting had missed the first three Tests with an injured thumb, leaving Adam Gilchrist to captain the team at a short notice. And India was the 'final frontier' for the Australian team: this was their first Test series win there in 35 years.

This photograph was taken with a wide angle lens as the team celebrated their victory on the field. Gilchrist was a natural subject to focus on, and I shot him while he was gesturing towards a small group of Australian supporters in the crowd.

I love the emotion on Gilchrist's face. It adds to the picture that he is still wearing his sweaty whites, his baggy green and his inner gloves.

It was late in the afternoon, which meant despite being a clear sunny day this part of the field was in shadow. To keep the blue of the sky it was necessary to balance the photo with flash. Camera flash, particularly outdoors, can often be more trouble than it's worth. It can take a long time for the flash to recharge after firing. From memory, I took about 10 - 15 pictures of this moment and the flash only fired twice. Luckily for me, one of them was this photo. My other option, would have been to shoot without flash for which I would have had to set my exposure for the shadows and leave the sky all washed out. I could have got some usable photos that way, but it would not have been as nice.