The Stadium On The Night Of Diwali
To be honest, I didn’t expect the Chinnaswamy stadium to be full and that too with fans cheering on top of their voices on the Diwali evening. Not when RCB was already out of reckoning and a security scare. Neither did I anticipate that the team would actually finish off the Daredevils with 29 balls to spare.
Therein lies the explanation. The 40,000 strong crowd believed in the team and was there to show its love and support. The team responded to that faith and to Ray’s parting words in the team meeting “Let’s create something special tonight; thousands would be looking at us for the inspiration”.
No one who was present at the stadium this Diwali would ever forget the night. The sky was lit with fire-works for ages. An official told me that the stadium has never been so noisy since the 1996 India-Pakistan Quarter Final. No mean feet by any standards, my friends. The victory lap after the match might very well be the scene by which this tournament would be remembered ten years from now.
Having sung the glory of the night let me also tell you about a couple of relatively unimportant facts. Over half the Daredevils supporters with blue flags in the crowd were fake opportunists :coolgrin: . Flags, both blue and red, were being distributed freely outside the stadium and with typical Indian mentality some grabbed whatever they could. A stand on my left was half blue when Sehwag was blazing, and turned completely red by the time Ross went on with his job.
I also happened to meet winners of the twitter contest held by Lalit Modi. All the guys were seated in J-corporate box and they got a taste of what I meant by “unlimited supply of food and booze”. One of the winners, Hrish had my number and we met near the bar. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that some of them have been reading my posts. They insisted on clicking a photo with me. Since my face isn’t a value-add on any snap, we came up with the following solution:
Later on these guys succeeded in scoring a snap with Sunil Gavaskar himself.
PS: I would be writing a few more posts which were planned but couldn’t be completed due to the early exit. Although, the comments sections have been deserted off late, I know your souls are begging for more. :)
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I'm glad we won the peanuts, for whatever it was worth.
The only parallel to this win I can think of is the 1996 WC QF against Pak - I remember watching India bat at Windsor Manor; Jadeja blasting Pak for 26 runs in the last over. I had to rush back home before Pak started batting.
That was a Satuday evening and Bangalore roads were absolutely absolutely deserted .. from Windsor Manor to Basavanagudi via all the otherwise crowded roads!
Bangalore population has grown significantly since then, KSCA capacity has not increased!! and that explains why the roads were not deserted this time.
To add i have won myself a pass for the finals in Hyd as well..How i wish RCB were there :(