SauravO1's Wankhede Diary (India - West Indies Test at Mumbai)

[Magneto]

Day Two

My celebration season is not over yet. Some botched-up travel arrangements cost me the first day at Wankhede, but thankfully, nothing much happened that would have made me curse myself for a long, long time. While travelling to Eden was a cakewalk (all I had to do was to hop on to a cab and say 'Eden'), travelling to Wankhede from the other side of the city requires lot more - some bit of planning, some more struggle in the local trains in the morning hours and a terrible, unhealthy amount of sleep deprivation. As I strolled into the stadium accompanied by a marketing expert friend, this is how the day passed by: a) Marketing gyan - My friend was livid with the poor attendance and could not fathom why BCCI did not market this game. "This is the first time India is playing at the Wankhede after the World Cup triumph ... they needed to market that", "This is the very same stadium in which Dhoni had hit the six to win us the World Cup ... they needed to market that", he went on and on. I tried to explain to him that BCCI is never interested in marketing any of its products, and cricket in India does not really need any marketing. But I soon stopped hardselling my point as the crowd never grew beyond 5000 the entire day. Cost comparison - From marketing, we took a look at the cost comparison between Eden and Wankhede. In comparison to Eden's ticket prices (100, 200, 300), Wankhede is much cheaper (50, 100, 150). But the costs get equalized when it comes to food; 2 samosas cost 12 rupees at the Eden while it costs 30 rupees at Wankhede, and along with that everything else is far more expensive (vada pao - 20, veg burger - 50, chicken burger - 60). On the positive side, Wankhede provides you with a free supply of filtered water (to be consumed using small cups), whereas at the Eden you'll have to pay for plastic pouches containing filtered water. c) Security check - The security check at the Eden was at three levels, whereas at least seven people frisk you before you can enter the Wankhede. The frisking is pretty tough, they feel you up all over, in places you never knew existed within your body. But once all the frisking is done, you can sit back and enjoy the game and go out to the food court as many times as you want. On the other hand at the Eden, every time you return to your seat from the food court, you'll have to show your ticket. d) What's the score, eh? - After lunch, the electronic scoreboard of the stadium conked off for an hour making us realize how difficult it is to watch a match at a stadium if the scoreboard is not functioning. The manual scoreboard does work, but once you get used to an electronic scoreboard, everything else looks pretty much Greek to you. e) No drinks - When the drinks break was announced after an hour from lunch, one spectator chirped that the Indian team should not be allowed the drinks break since they have hardly done anything worthwhile on the field the whole day. Drinks should be a privilege for the better performing team, and should not be allowed to both teams :-p f) The drinks vehicle - Unlike Eden, where the drinks was carried by a Maruti Omni, here, two people with a hand cart brings the drinks to the field. But funnily, (during the drinks break after tea), not a single player of the Indian team touched the official drink. Rohit Sharma, the official waterboy of the Indian team, got some bottles from behind the boundary line, and distributed the same to all the members of the team. He seems to share a real cold vibe with Virat Kohli; not a single word was exchanged between the two when he handed over a bottle to Kohli. g) Iski photo khichni banti hai - As I was admiring the clock at the Wankhede, a fat chubby boy jumped two rows with his mobile phone camera saying 'Iski photo khichni banti hai'. As I turned around to figure out who's this 'must click' cricketer, the usual suspect emerged - Virat Kohli stands near the ropes with his fancy goggles. Two groups of fans started screaming 'Vi-raat, Vi-raat', and 'Koh-li, Koh-li' unable to make up their minds as to what to call him. All the screams were eventually submerged by a desperate female shriek 'Virat, I love you'. Kohli looked back for a moment, blushed like a teenager and turned back to focus on the game. He eventually breathed a sigh of relief when Dravid replaced him on the boundary. h) Collective sigh of the day - Sachin Tendulkar's throw at the stumps to create a run-out opportunity had led to the biggest 'collective sigh of the day' till afternoon. Later, it was eclipsed by Dhoni's dropped catch off a Varun Aaron delivery; complete with Aaron's melodramatic look (on one knee as well) at his captain as if to say 'Oh my captain, what have you done!'. The replays made the crowd let a few more sighs eventually making Aaron the crowd favourite at the end of the day. i) Bhajji fan - One Bhajji fan kept screaming and cursing the Indian spinners stating that this humiliation would never have resulted had Bhajji been there. Ashwin's late burst quietened him completely as he realized that with this four wickets, Bhajji may now well miss the flight to Australia. k) Zero-Zero - After the fall of the ninth wicket, both Bishoo and Edwards were batting at zero. The mathematically oriented elderly gentleman beside me explained to me - 'When they started batting, two batsmen were at zero-zero. Now after 566 runs, we again have two batsmen at zero-zero. And if one of them fall now, the Indian batsmen will come to the field at zero-zero. l) 100-100 - An enthusiastic bunch of people have created a huge banner that says 'Every milestone is a beginning to a new journey'. The banner lists each of Sachin's international centuries in terms of year, venue and actual runs scored (in chronological order). These people have been carrying this banner everyday to the field hoping they would be able to display it proudly sometime. Now since the Windies batting is almost over, they were really positive that tomorrow (Nov 24) would be the day when the historic moment would come. There seemed to be more energy, interest and frenzy at the counters selling the daily tickets for tomorrow. Also, there is still a bit of silent anticipation lurking around for the possibilities of tomorrow, much like the lull before the storm. And every person who walks in to the stadium tomorrow hopes earnestly that he/she gets to be a part of history, part of a legacy that they can proudly share with their present and future generations. Tomorrow and day after will be decisive, and if Sachin misses the bus once again, they'll definitely miss the last opportunity of savouring the momentous occasion in front of their eyes. But as they say, hope is a good thing. And hope will keep us alive tomorrow.

Day Three

Cricket is back! I mean, Test cricket is back! I mean, this whole goddamned thing of being one in a crowd of thousands - jumping, cheering, celebrating, and savouring every moment where every single movement on the field is magnified, commented, remarked, whistled and clapped upon, is back. What Kotla, Eden and a couple of unbelievable Test matches at Newlands and Wanderers could not do, Wankhede has managed effortlessly. In a match where the outcome is an already foregone conclusion, barring a miracle. The lull before the storm (that I had mentioned yesterday) transformed into a pretty strong wind as we entered Wankhede today. With the tickets for the best seats in our pockets, people in my stand were waiting for the action to unfold. And that meant the fall of the last Windies wicket. The North Stand of Wankhede undoubtedly has the best seats in the stadium as it gives you a head-on view of all the action. Cheered on by thousands of college kids in the stands, this is how the action spanned out: a) Mexican wave - The most enthusiastic stand in the stadium made numerous well-organized attempts of creating a proper Mexican wave to go with the mood, just to be botched up severely by the boring people sitting in the stand on the left. Upset about the hard work going to waste, the kids of the North Stand started screaming 'East Stand hai hai' ... only to realize that the spoilt sports are occupying the Sunil Gavaskar pavilion and not the East Stand. There is no East Stand at Wankhede. Chants of the day - When a devil-may-care audience is busy in merrymaking, most of the chants are neither poetic nor make any sense. It ranged from the rhythmically challenged ' Hum sabko pata hai, Sehwag humara Singham hai' to the pointless 'Aussie sucks' to the expletive-ridden 'Wankhede mein aaya hai bhoot, Pakistan ki ____ ____ _____' The most popular chant and sing-along seemed to be 'Lee lara laiyo .... aiyo aiyo' ... which, though unfathomable, was good fun to sway with. c) Teasers of the day - As the crowd got increasingly impatient to see their GOD, glimpses of the man himself (sitting in the dressing room) were shown in the giant screen time and again, throwing the crowd in a frenzy. He was shown at 68/1, 94/1, 111/1 and 138/1, and ironically the moment he was shown the fourth time - Gambhir fell. d) Cometh the man - Gambhir's dismissal brought much cheer to the crowd as usual (he must be used to it by now), and no one was even remotely interested to see the replay of the controversial dismissal. The stadium authorities also wisely resisted from showing the replay, not that it would have made anyone upset. e) Standing ovation - The well-informed crowd were not only just overawed by the anticipation of Sachin's 100th ton, they also knew that Dravid is in for a big moment as well. Every run leading to his 13,000 were counted and cheered and when the moment came - Dravid was given a grand, standing ovation. f) When should Sachin come - Most people hoped for the first two wickets to fall as soon as possible, for some, even as early as the first over would do (patriotism and all that be darned for a day, this is the mother of all cricketing moments) . Sehwag always gives you hope in his crash-boom-bang style and you know that sooner or later he'll pack his bags and baggages and leave. That was pretty much sorted out. The issue was that of the second wicket - Gambhir did not want to go and no one can ask Dravid to go (and even if you ask him, he won't go :-) ) According to crowd theory, if Sachin came with 60 overs to spare, he could still reach his century. No one wanted to wait for another day to see his century, not because they value their time, but simply because there's no guarantee that you'll get the tickets for the next day, a fear that came true for many people. Sachin eventually came with exactly 50 overs to spare. g) 'Boo' of the day - One replay of a Ravi Rampaul delivery hinted at the fact that Rampaul was looking at Sachin eye-to-eye and squaring off with him. The crowd went livid in a moment; after all, how dare Rampaul try to intimidate Sachin. The combined disgust resulted in spontaneous booos all around the ground, ending up in 'Rampaul sucks, Rampaul sucks', a chant that reverberated around the stadium throughout his spell. More boos were preserved for Edwards and Sammy for similar reasons. h) All is well - Not many people realized that the WI team has appealed for Dravid's 'bowled out'. Most of them assumed that they were waiting for drinks, and as soon as the news spread and the giant screen said 'Third Umpire's decision pending' - the chant of 'All is Well' resonated around the stadium to make Dravid feel at peace. Eventually, all this wellwishing went to waste, as Dravid had to walk back. i) Collective sigh of the day - The crowd sighed in spontaneous appreciation when Dravid managed to kick the ball from hitting his stumps. Later, the crowd sighed in despair when one shot of Laxman's ballooned up and eventually fell in the no man's land. But before the crowd could get over all that, Sachin got a repreive, with the giant screen showing how Baugh fumbled the opportunity. The slow-motion replay brought out a bigger collective sigh, only to be followed by a moment of educated silence. The party had almost crashed but for Baugh! j) Fielding effort of the day - The first slip's dive to stop the ball from touching the helmet after it had rolled off from Baugh won full marks from the crowd. k) Inverse counting - From the moment Sachin opened his account, the crowd counted his score inversely in terms of runs required. So when he scored '1', the crowd screamed '99', when he scored '26', the crowd screamed '74' and so on. 50 however remained 50. l) Shot of the day - Sachin's retaliatory upper cut for a six, after Edwards bombarded him with a bouncer just after tea made the crowd happier than ever. "Mumbai ka don Kaun" ... "Sachin, Sachin" and so on! m) Bhaago aur ticket jugaado - The sale of tickets for the next day always starts at 4 PM at Wankhede. Today after 4 PM, the crowd gradually started depleting, as everyone knew that the rest of the party would be reserved for tomorrow. And whoever is unable to attend it would miss the main cake-cutting ceremony. People then ran towards the counters all around the stadium, only to find serpentine, kilometre long queues all around where getting hold of a ticket is as good as winning a lottery. Wankhede was sold out in two hours! Therefore, Nov 25, 2011 is going to be a make-or-break day. There is no middle ground between agony or ecstasy here, and along with Sachin, we'll also be stranded in one extreme of the emotional range. There is also no better ground for Sachin to score this century; and no better spectators who can appreciate this century's worth. And whatever the final outcome is, a raucous crowd of 33 thousand will adorn the galleries of Wankhede tomorrow cheering every ball, proving, that cricket is indeed a celebration of life. And of some other small things. And as we were taught when we were young - if you pray earnestly to GOD, you get a response. So with bated breath, the whole of Wankhede will be waiting for the response tomorrow. May a new shining chapter be added to the already crowded pages of cricketing history!

Day Four

On November 25, 2011 the sun rose a little earlier in Mumbai for 30,000 people. The local trains too were perhaps a little more crowded than usual. It seemed that almost everyone had the same destination. After all, we were all about to be linked by a common thread of destiny, a thread that would would make us direct witnesses to an event which would forever be etched in the annals of the great game. The writing was already on the wall, all we had to do was to show up and experience it. Since Wankhede had been sold out the night before, the queues were longer than any other day. While standing in the queues, some people tried to follow the proceedings on their GPRS-activated mobile, just to make sure that Sachin is still safe and sound at the crease. The occasional roar of the audiences (that could be heard from miles outside) just indicated the fact that all was well. So, the action started in a roaring, rambling stadium brimming with enthusiasm and anticipation. a) Action Replay - Sachin's upper cut off Edwards for a six instantly brought back flashes from yesterday (It actually brings back memories of the 2003 WC match against Pakistan all the time). Sachin had suddenly reached the nineties in no time, and the crowd was suitably on its feet. Err what - As Sachin was cruising along with his elegant stroke-making, the initially nervous crowd got into their comfort zone pointing their mobile cameras at every ball that was bowled. Everyone wanted to capture the moment they had been dreaming off. And suddenly, Ravi Rampaul steamed in, Sachin poked at the delivery and for a microsecond, the whole of Wankhede forgot the rules of cricket. Even the WI players had a seemingly late reaction (only a microsecond late though, to fathom out that something awkward had happened, this is not what the script said). Err ... what, why is he going, oh my god, he is out!!! - This is probably the sequence of the stream of consciousness that we all went through ... and like all bad things in life, this was a one-way irreparable damage. It's like a cyrstal bowl that has fallen off your hand and has broken into million pieces, and there is no way you can put them back. Sachin Tendulkar is GONE. He is leaving now. A few members in the audience still realized the importance of the occasion and clapped for him, but for the rest, we all forgot how to clap. We also forgot how to click photos through our cameras in our daze and naturally failed to recognize the new batsman who came to the crease. Who is he? Why has he even come? c) Super-villain of the day - After Ravi Rampaul's chest-beating exuberance after Sachin's dismissal, the 'Rampaul Sucks' chants of yesterday took on a new meaning today. After the over, Rampaul was sent to man the ropes near the Vijay Merchant Pavilion, and the wild, raucous crowd tried out all kinds of noises to take its revenge on the party-wrecker. Notable among the chants were 'Wankhede mein aaya hain bhoot, Rampaul ki ___ ____ ____', 'Neem ka patta karwa hai, Rampaul sala bharwa hai', and the insanely inane 'Sachin we love you, Rampaul **** you' along with 'Ey Oh ey Oh ... Rampaul is a bastard'. People were also trying to check with each other whether Rampaul understands Hindi, otherwise a lot of these chants will go to waste. After being assured about Rampaul's UP origins, the decibel level of the chants shot up. In a bizarre comparison, some creative members of the crowd had also named Rampaul 'Ra.One', because the name Ravi Rampaul sounds like Arjun Rampal's brother, and since Arjun played 'Ra.One', Rampaul can also be called the same. After all, Rampaul's first name starts with RA, and he's annihilated our superhero. d) Follow on, Follow on - For the only time in his career probably, Dhoni walked into an Indian cricket ground amongst utter cold indifference and walked out of the ground in loud cheer. When his woodwork got shattered, the hopes of a follow-on began to materialize and with that, the hope of seeing another Sachin innings and hopefully a ton. The crowd began to back West Indies from now on, I mean, West Indies without Rampaul. Like a hurt lover, the crowd would still heckle Rampaul whenever they would feel angst-ridden. e) A friend of mine who was also in the stadium at a different stand calls me. Friend - Match dekh rahan hai? I - Haan Friend (in a heartbroken tone) - I walked into the stadium, and Sachin got out in the first ball I saw. I hadn't even taken my seat yet. I - Oh. So, in which stand are you? Friend - I am at a pub now. I am not coming back today. SILENCE Then he hangs up. f) Back to life - A bored crowd, trying to find some life in this misery, went into celebration mode. It was full-on IPL mood, with no one knowing why they were there and what party they were having. Only a few interested people kept watching the match while the others got busy with their cold drinks, chants and musical instruments. A few crisp boundaries by Ashwin got them back to their feet though. g) Shots of the day - Ashwin's double scoops to get into his nineties created some rollicking moments for the crowd giving them a lot to cheer about. h) The anti-Punjabi conspiracy - The college kids on the row before me gleefully stated that the Kohli-Ashwin partnership was a sureshot way of eliminating the Punjabi players from the team. viz. Yuvraj and Bhajji. According to them, the partnership has completely sealed the fate of the two players in terms of their Australia tour, and the whole of Punjab must be in mourning now. i) Happy Birthday to you - A 'happy birthday to you' song erupted from somewhere in the stands with a bunch of people singing it in front of a camera. Through further probing we got to know that it is intended towards a cameraman of Neo Sports who was posted in our stand. His name is Deepak and it's his birthday today, so the crowd around him is wishing him Happy Birthday. Later, they also chanted 'Dee-pak, Dee-pak' making the cameraman feel extra special on his special day. j) Ojha, mat ja! - When Ojha was bravely defending all the balls hurled at him towards the end, chants of 'Ojha, mat ja' ... 'Ojha .... Mat ja' erupted from one of the stands. Every ball Ojha defended were also loudly cheered. 'Bechara Ojha has to handle more pressure than Tendulkar now' chirped someone. Also, the 'Rampaul sucks' chants were resumed once Rampaul started bowling to Ojha. k) Celebrity pangs - During tea, Sudhir Kumar (Sachin's greatest fan) got mobbed by the crowd outside at the food court. Everyone wanted to click a snap with him, and today, in a bad mood, Sudhir was in no mood to oblige. He kept running away from the crowds whenever they chased him and was finally whisked away by some compassionate officials. I do wonder what's going to happen to Sudhir once Sachin retires. Sachin's retirement would eventually mean his retirement as well, signalling the end to his celebrityhood. l) Mini-villain of the day - At the fading hours of the day, the crowd got back to its feet chanting 'We want Sachin, we want Sachin' after every over. Dhoni, the people's champion that he is, finally acceded to the crowd's request by handing over the ball to Sachin for the last over. And voila, in the third ball of the over, Kohli missed a catch that flew straight at him resulting in the last collective sigh of the day. A livid teenager commented - 'Ai zauli, paisa wasool tha motherchod' and glared at Kohli with infinite rage. The rest of the people had pretty much the same emotion, turning Kohli into the mini-villain at the end of the day. And then, it was all over. And whatever crowd remained, walked off in silence. Tomorrow promises to be a no-show for the crowd, and Test cricket will pretty much be again back to square one with the emptiness of the stands echoing around. At the end, one needs to spare a thought for the crowd that came in droves today and went back disappointed. They all somehow know that the elusive 100th hundred will eventually happen. But that will now only happen at an electronic screen near them, at a country that is probably far, far away. The event would be real, but not the image. And while it would only be a pile of information packaged to them in the form of pixels, someone else in his own country would be able to savour the real thing. The real truth. The real moment. And for people who could not witness the moment despite all their efforts, the event when it happens, would never a part of their experience again. But today, they had an opportunity and were ready to do anything for the experience. Almost anything!

Day Five (Epic day)

On 26/11, the final day at Wankhede started off lazily as far as spectator involvement is concerned. Not many had bothered to buy the tickets for a seemingly boring 5th day, and tickets were available in plenty, contrary to the 'sold out' boards of the previous day. Despite no hopes for a result, I had still bought them the day before just to laze off at a cricket stadium for a day, for there is no other place on earth that makes me happier. Then as the day progressed, and the WI wickets fell in a heap resulting in a thrilling Indian chase, these are a few things that happened behind the scenes: a) From 0 to thousands - As the news of the West Indian collapse trickled through, people from all corners of Mumbai rushed into the local trains as soon as possible and left for Wankhede. Not only was a thrilling match on offer, but for the hopefuls, there was a chance of the elusive 100th ton too, that they had barely missed last day. But strangely, despite the stadium not being full, many were turned away from the ticket counters. A friend of mine who came all the way to the stadium was turned away on the pretext of 'all tickets sold out', when the stadium was not more than 60 per cent full. Revenge on Rampaul - As Ravi Rampaul came out to bat, the chants of 'Rampaul Sucks' got a new lease of life. Later on, when Rampaul swivelled his bat to hit a ridiculous slog sweep that ended up as a catch in Sachin's hands, the crowd was simply ecstatic. They have got their revenge finally, and Rampaul departed amongst a lot of cheer complete with the 'Rampaul Sucks' chant. c) Will he, won't he? - After the WI collapse, rumours were afloat that Sachin would open the innings along with Sehwag to anchor the chase (or, in other words, to score his 100th 100 in front of his home crowd). Eventually, after a heart-stopping ten minute wait, Gambhir came out with Sehwag dashing all hopes. Then, Dhoni did get a fair amount of abuses for knowing nothing about cricket. d) How many overs are left? - The scoreboard left out the mandatory overs in the calculation of 'overs left'. It consistently showed fifteen overs less, confusing the hell out of the audience. The slightly-more-knowledgeable amidst the audience understood the difference, but many a confused spectator were ready to leave the field an hour before the end of play. Slogans like 'Satra Over baki hai, baith jao baith jao' had to be repeatedly chanted to calm down the confused lot. e) Chants of the day - Wankhede was at its poetic best today. When Viru was slaughtering the WI bowling, chants like 'Sab ke muh mein chewing gum hai, Sehwag humara Singham hai' 'Wankhede mein saap hai, Viru sabka baap hai' reverberated around. The rocking 'chakala bakala chakala bakala ... hoo hah hoo hah' also came back everytime the public pretended to get bored. All of these were of course interspersed with the regular and very pleasing 'Jitega bhai Jitega, India jitega'. Later, when two groups of people were fighting over some seat issue towards the end of the day, the 'chanters' chanted - 'Gandhiji ko yaad karo, maramari bandh karo' and also sang 'Om Shanti Om, shanti shanti Om'. f) Inverse counting again - The very hopeful Wankhede crowd again started counting in inverse with Sachin's arrival. But sadly, all they could reach is '97' since Sachin holed out at 3 to short midwicket. But this time the disappointment was not that much, with Sachin returning to a mild applause. g) Horror shot of the day - Viru's Mike Gatting-ish attempt of a reverse sweep that ended up like a Misbah-ish scoop, stunned the crowd into silence. Not much was spoken, and all the chants stopped. h) Stupid chants - A part of the crowd suddenly started screaming 'We want Sixer' after the fall of the Dravid's wicket, with Laxman and Kohli in the crease. An elderly uncle suddenly got up and shouted: 'If you don't understand cricket, just SHUT UP'. Seeing the uncle's anger, the chanting crowd immediately sealed its lips. A wave of silent smiles wafted through the audience. i) Mini-villain turned mini-hero turned mini-villain - When Virat Kohli hit a sixer off Marlon Samuels, the crowd went berserk singing 'Kohli ke peeche kya hai, Kohli ke peeche' (with intra-crowd responses of 'Yuvraj' and 'Item). The 'Kohli ke peeche' song continued for some tome with effusive praises for him for seeing the chase through with a mature head. However, his careless dismissal at the brink of victory turned him into a mini-villain again in the eyes of some. j) Empty ground - For once, the ground was absolutely empty during the tea break. No one practised throwdowns or fielding, nor were any nets put temporarily like the other days. Signs of the last day of a Test Series. k) Post tea - A lot happened post tea. For starters, the sun dramatically disappeared during the first over after tea making the ground look very dark. Perhaps it was an omen signalling Dhoni's dismissal as he departed soon after that. l) The Mexican wave FINALLY worked - After a few failed attempts (mainly because of unsporting slobs sitting at the Sunil Gavaskar Pavilion who find it very difficult raising both hands), with 25 runs to go, the Mexican Wave finally worked. The slobs at the Sunil Gavaskar Pavilion became sporting enough and suddenly for a whole over, the whole Wankhede was roaring with the wave. The best sight in the stadium in all five days! m) Bada maza aaya - After Ashwin's run-out appeal was negated by the third umpire, the nervous crowd roared in joy chanting '******* banaya, bada maza aaya'. The same chant was repeated a few times, notably during the overthrows that occurred when Sammy tried to run out Ashwin. n) Creative chant of the day - When Bishoo was bowling at the end, the chanters chanted 'Eyyyyyyyy Bishooooop' (Bishoooop sounded like the dishum/dishum sounds that are used in Hindi films when the hero boxes the villain). The chanters added the boxing action too. o) Boo of the day - In the first ball of the last over of the day, the entire stadium booed Edwards when he was about to 'Mankad' Ashwin. p) Blankness all over - When Ashwin did not run for the second run off the last ball and eventually got 'run out', the crowd went blank in disbelief. For the entire day, they had backed Team India and had not generally bothered about personal milestones, contrary to their general behaviour. And now, everything has come to nothing, and it is just a draw, as they had believed it would be, a day before. Though some of us consoled ourselves with the belief that 'a draw match where both the scores are tied' is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was all worth it, the general sentiment was summed up by a teenager speaking to his friend on the phone - 'Match mein maza aaya, lekin result mein maza nahi aaya'. And then, it was finally all over. Some people stayed back to see the distribution of the awards, while the others left with a blank face, still not knowing how to react. Most of us had left the stadium with a broken heart yesterday, and today we left with a broken voice. For me, it's now definitely the end of my celebration season, and despite all the self-consolation, it would have been nice to round it up with a thrilling victory. For quite sometime now, I'll miss a few things dearly - like, writing late night posts and waking up in the morning, green fields with thousands of seats around, the roar and the frenzy of the crowds and of course, chasing the historic personal landmark. I'll also probably miss the three ads that they kept showing on the scoreboards throughout the Tests - of Amaron batteries, Zuari Cement and the Polaris off-roader. But finally, these few days has been etched in my memory firmly now, and will not fade out in a hurry! :-)

[ganeshran]

Great writeup.. waiting to read Day 4

[Sidhoni]

:two_thumbs_up: Brilliantly written!!

[Chandan]

What a superb article and what a wonderful experience it'd have been especially the thrilling last day when it was so difficult for me to survive even in front of TV.

[rajmarie]

Saurav....great summary of Day5. Apply at cricinfo for doing some of their articles which are so predictable & boring. You will bring back the joy in reading those. Keep the good work. BTW...are you travelling to Aus to cover those Test also?

[gaurav92]

Great write up :nice:

[Magneto]

Thanks Sidhoni and Gaurav. :-) @ Chandan - It was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A stadium makes you see much more than TV does, and with a wild crowd in a frenzy, things look so much better. @ Rajmarie - Thanks again! Would love to write for Cricinfo casually, but tough deadlines, word-limits and their internal stylebooks makes writing rather 'restrictive'. Planning to visit Australia surely for a couple of Tests - and now it's all up to the visa people! :-)

[rajmarie]

Saurav...great to see that you will go to Aus. Hoping you get to see from Day 1...& expecting to read ur T1 D1 summary in my evening since it will be late night if u will be in Aus. Agreed...cricinfo...or all so called professional place can get quite "restrictive". Well...I dont think anybody at ICF will mind ur free spirited writeups. Great reading.

[Mariyam]

Enjoyed your article more than I did watching the game. Don't know how I missed these earlier. Good job.

[Magneto]

Hey thanks Mariyam, glad you enjoyed them :-)

[Swing_n_Speed]

whoaaa stumbled upon this today as i was randomly surfing the net drinking my early morning cuppa and was hooked. I almost lived the test right there. Brilliant narration dude. Thanks a ton. Loved it! P.SThanks to you I gotta cut my gym session by 20 mins now.

[Magneto]

whoaaa stumbled upon this today as i was randomly surfing the net drinking my early morning cuppa and was hooked. I almost lived the test right there. Brilliant narration dude. Thanks a ton. Loved it! P.SThanks to you I gotta cut my gym session by 20 mins now.

Hey, thanks a lot! I'm glad you enjoyed it :aha: :sad: Sorry for spoiling your gym session