India vs WI , 3rd test :Observations from Wankhede - Epic Match

[Manny_Pacquiao]

Hum sabko pata hai' date=' Sehwag humara Singham hai' to the pointless 'Aussie sucks' to the expletive-ridden [b']'Wankhede mein aaya hai bhoot, Pakistan ki ____ ____ _____' !

aaah, that last one is a classic. never gets old. nice post, keep them coming. cant wait to read your account of how tendulkar scored his 100th 100 tomorrow

[Sachinism]

Wow super write up dude. Damn, can't believe I missed these earlier. Will catch up on the older ones tomorrow

[Yoda-esque]

Fantastic! You have the gift my friend.. Waiting for tomorrow's write up .

[yoda]

Great writeup. Thanks for giving those weren't there as close to a live description as possible.

[Pagalpanti]

Great writeup. Thanks for giving those weren't there as close to a live description as possible.

+1

[Jersey #10]

Beautiful, just amazing read I don't remember reading such a artistic piece in a long time. I started reading these yesterday and it's already got me addicted. Can't wait to read tomorrows write up This is probably the closest I will ever get to watching a cricket match in a stadium (IPL and other T20s don't count). Thank you for coming to the aid of the unfortunate fanatics like myself who can only dream of watching a game live (mainly living abroad).

[Jersey #10]

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.

btw, while I am at it, 33 more to go :band:

[punjabi_khota]

I just noticed. Where the **** is cricketics ?

[Jersey #10]

^why this kolaveri? I wondered the same about a week ago

[Precambrian]

Superb piece of writing... Put in an email to cricinfo, they should list this in "Fan following" on their website...

[Magneto]

Thanks everyone. :-) The journey to Wankhede ended with a broken heart, of course.

[Magneto]

Actually talking of food court reminded me of last time 2002 when WI visited the same ground for a test.... Crowd kept on chanting "Nagmaaa.. Nagmaaaa.. Nagmaa...." Poor dada.... @EOD People chanted name of Tendulkar so much that Dada gave him last over of the day My frnd who had watched the game with me called me at very late night at around 2 AM complaining food poisioning because he ate pizzaa @Wankhede.... :haha:... It was actually too much beer Also there wasnt any security check i can remember of...

Dhoni also gave Sachin the last over today due to popular demand. The tradition continues, therefore.

[mani0993]

Even I was there @ Wankhede. Few instances which I expected to witness from a Mumbai based crowd but hated it. 1) When Dravid was hurt and the physio came out, few guys in the crowd said, "Dravid injure ho gaya hain. Chal ja ab, Sachin ko aane de". That was something which made me sad. 2) Gambhir not even given a clap for his 50. All eyes were on Tendulkar's walk out of the pavilion. That was really sad. All were happy instead. 3) When Edwards/Rampaul were bowling short balls at Tendulkar then the crowd started to boo them. Say Rampaul sucks,etc. Similarly, when Tendulkar hit a ball towards the third man, the crowd shouted, leave the ball and again started to boo and rant. Another instance which happened on Day 2 (I don't know whether Saurav saw that) was that Rahul Sharma got into a spat with a spectators who incidently called him paaniwalla when he was walking around the boundary to give drinks to the fielders. RS glared for a few seconds and then crossed the advertising boards and talked with that guy. He looked really angry. Then the policeman there-in was told to handle the situation and hence the guy was forced to sit.

[Magneto]

Gambhir gets a similar deal everywhere nowadays :-) The crowd did clap for his 50 though (not a thunderous ovation, but a fair applause). He also got some credit for crossing 3500 runs. Booing the opposition and backing your own is a common sporting phenomena. Just adds to the fun of it. ;-) I did see the Rahul Sharma incident because it happened in front of the Divecha Pavilion. (I had a seat there on Day 2). Thanks for elaborating though, because I did not exactly understand what had happened. Rahul Sharma looked all worked up and also had a minor tiff, but I didn't realize that it was a 'waterboy' issue. As an aside, I would like to say that Rahul Sharma seems to have too much of an attitude(which I don't like). Out of the four extras, Rahane seems to be the sweetest. He is always running around with loads of bottles, trying to help whoever he can in whatever way. Rahul wears his attitude on his sleeve, and hangs around with a grumpy face.

[Cricket Tragic]

Even I was there @ Wankhede. Few instances which I expected to witness from a Mumbai based crowd but hated it. 1) When Dravid was hurt and the physio came out, few guys in the crowd said, "Dravid injure ho gaya hain. Chal ja ab, Sachin ko aane de". That was something which made me sad. 2) Gambhir not even given a clap for his 50. All eyes were on Tendulkar's walk out of the pavilion. That was really sad. All were happy instead. 3) When Edwards/Rampaul were bowling short balls at Tendulkar then the crowd started to boo them. Say Rampaul sucks,etc. Similarly, when Tendulkar hit a ball towards the third man, the crowd shouted, leave the ball and again started to boo and rant. Another instance which happened on Day 2 (I don't know whether Saurav saw that) was that Rahul Sharma got into a spat with a spectators who incidently called him paaniwalla when he was walking around the boundary to give drinks to the fielders. RS glared for a few seconds and then crossed the advertising boards and talked with that guy. He looked really angry. Then the policeman there-in was told to handle the situation and hence the guy was forced to sit.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Some needs to tell him to man up.

[Karan114]

Another instance which happened on Day 2 (I don't know whether Saurav saw that) was that Rahul Sharma got into a spat with a spectators who incidently called him paaniwalla when he was walking around the boundary to give drinks to the fielders. RS glared for a few seconds and then crossed the advertising boards and talked with that guy. He looked really angry. Then the policeman there-in was told to handle the situation and hence the guy was forced to sit.

As an aside' date=' I would like to say that Rahul Sharma seems to have too much of an attitude(which I don't like). Out of the four extras, Rahane seems to the sweetest. He is always running around with loads of bottles, trying to help whoever he can in whatever way. Rahul wears his attitude on his sleeve, and hangs around with a grumpy face.[/quote'] What a moron - if this is his attitude even before playing a game for India, heaven knows how arrogant he will become when he does.

[Magneto]

Observations from Wankhede - 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. b) 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!

[mishra]

:sniffle:

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).

Thanks for letting me know that i wasnt only one

[daryl1985]

Another good read. Must have been even more heartbreaking in the stadium.

[kirkutfan]

Awesome writing again, Saurav. After first reading your day 3 write up I was actually looking forward to reading your post for day 4. You didn't disappoint. I can only imagine what might have been had the 100th century actually materialized.