The big day finally arrived - after days of planning, Rakesh, Amruta, Harsha, Anjali and I found ourselves in Mumbai for the second semi-final of the IPL's first edition - Punjab Kings XI led by Yuvray Singh versus Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings!We had expected a lot of sweating and standing, a lot of pushing through crowds, a lot of pain before getting into the stadium. After all, I had been to the India-Sri Lanka match in Goa a few years back, and just getting into the stadium had been a test of endurance and spirit! We were therefore very pleasantly surprised that the Kyazoonga.com counter took less than a min to hand us our tickets after accepting the printout of the online confirmation as proof. There were no crowds. The experience when we reached for the match in the evening was even better. Expecting huge crowds and queues, we had turned up fairly early - even then, inspite of the tight security, finding the right gates and getting inside and finding our seats was as easy as could be!
The atmosphere was electric. Awesome music from SRK's hits and Mumbai's very own lezim beats kept the crowd on their feet throughout the almost two hours before the match began, while the players warmed up on the ground to cheers from the audience.
We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Every ball was applauded and appreciated by the very knowledgeable and sportive crowd. There was a lot of good humour going around, mexican waves, chants, and lots of singing and dancing. The cheerleaders added beautiful color and rhythm and excitement to the atmosphere - probably one of the best things to happen to cricket! I fail to see why anyone would have problems with them! Their energy simply added so much to the long gaps between overs, and after every boundary and every wicket!
Here, you see Makhaya Ntini starting to bowl to Yuvraj Singh. We also saw Pathan's swing bowling, Murali's guile, Gony, Balaji and Piyush, Romesh Pawar's bowling as also his lusty hitting towards the end of the Punjab innings, Dhoni's captaincy, Sreesanth's little spat with Yuvraj, and lots of other exciting players!
The match itself wasn't so exciting - Punjab folded easily for just over 100, and Chennai lost just one wicket before over-hauling the total with a few overs to go. However, the experience will last a life time. The beautiful oval under lights under the dark Mumbai sky, the colorful flannel pyjamas, the white ball, the beautiful, beautiful sound of willow hitting the ball, the sixes sailing over the ropes, the fielders diving and applauding, the crowds chanting, the cheer leaders, the music... every single moment as soaked and enjoyed to the fullest. It was just so surreal.
As as Chennai hit the final runs and the cheerleaders and players ran onto the field to celebrate the victory, I am sure every one of the 50000 odd spectators in the stands felt a little sad that the evening had finally come to an end.
PS: Sorry about the low pic quality - cameras weren't allowed in the stadium, and I had to rely on my cell phone to capture these moments
2 comments:
When it comes to cricket, I'm a new bee. I barely even know the names of all the teams and players in IPL.
Very honestly, from that perspective I loved being there at the stadium. Getting a good view of the entire game - the fielding positions, the bowler's strategy., all of it. I hated almost never knowing who was batting though ;)
I hated the heat. But the adrenaline around made it so worth it! And the cool breeze from Arabian after the match qualified for just the right topping :)
I have to say this - it was a memorable experience. And I had my own share of learnings. As an example, when going for a match, buy two tshirts - one for each team. So you can quickly change into the winning tshirt when you know which team will lose :p
Wow I have no words at all. What an awesome trip it was. My first experience watching the live match in stadium with noisy crowd, superb sound of music, dance and what not :) Aah Amazing.
I am not a big cricket fan but I seriously loved and enjoyed the match, loved the atmosphere out there in the stadium. Can you believe we literally went 2 hours before the match start and we enjoyed like hell even when match had 2 hours to start :) I loved the songs they played in those 2 hours. The music was awesome.
I loved shouting screaming dancing in the stadium. And I loved to wear the t shirt of king Punjab. Frankly I so so wanted to support Dhoni's team but as we wore the t shirt for kings Punjab we had no option also other than supporting this team :( But whatever it was I enjoyed a lot, a lot. It was really great and memorable experience.
One must go and have experience of watching match in stadium. I tho would love to go for other matches :) We should definitely plan for more such trips :)
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