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

[Magneto]

Thanks MG, Daryl and kirkutfan. The silence after the dismissal was deafening, and the resultant furore a celebration. And from the furore, the chants gradually changed from 'Sach-iin' to 'Ash-wiin' to 'Ash-wiin'. But no amount of celebration could hide the truth, and we all left pretty much emptyhanded.

[SachDan]

Another awesome read! Thanks Saurav :icflove:

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'

These kinda gaalis are reserved for anyone who dismisses Sachin at Mumbai nah? :haha:

[Magneto]

These kind of gaalis should be reserved for anyone who dismisses Sachin anywhere.:winky:

[SachDan]

^ Were you at the stadium yesterday?

[Magneto]

Yes, of course! I went to the stadium just to laze around and watch some boring cricket but came back witnessing the most amazing day of Test cricket I have ever watched in a cricket stadium.

[Magneto]

Observations from Wankhede - 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. b) 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! :-)

[Lord]

awesome:congrats: great work bro,hope u keep posting stuff on ICF

[mishra]

Another awesome read! Thanks Saurav :icflove: These kinda gaalis are reserved for anyone who dismisses Sachin at Mumbai nah? :haha:

Boss... I allways thought we should organise such things for Indian games... But problem is even not peanuts... proportion of Indian cricket fans visit this site.. May be 10-20 year down the line icf will rock in the stadiums too.

[J P K]

top class stuff :two_thumbs_up:

[Number]

Excellent .. :two_thumbs_up:

[kirkutfan]

Thanks. Too bad they couldn't add a day six for this test. India would win and I get to read your stuff for another day. Excellent stuff Saurav.

[Holysmoke]

This thread is proof that Mumbai has the best crowd in India. Looks like you had a lot of fun. I was there for a couple of days as well. PS - Madrasis, dont even start with the "knowledgeable-u"

[Magneto]

@ Lord, JPK and Numb - Thanks a lot. Glad you liked it. :-) @ Kirkutfan - Haha. A one-over sixth day victory report would have been fun to write. @ Holysmoke - Oh I had the most fun I have ever had in a cricket stadium. The Wankhede crowd keeps buzzing relentlessly, no matter what. When things are not really happening, they take upon the responsibility of entertaining themselves by their exuberant chanting and singing. Yes, one would expect them to be a little more knowledgeable and not ask for sixers when your team is in a tense situation. But, at the end, it's part of the game and it's worth being at Wankhede simply because of the crowd.

[ganeshran]

Awesome writeup as usual. Its now an article on the home page. :)

[SachDan]

^ good job :D

[Magneto]

Thanks GR :-)

[bajrang]

great job once again keep it up buddy

[The Dark Horse]

Nice:nice: your writing is very good

[yoda]

Great write up.

This thread is proof that Mumbai has the best crowd in India. Looks like you had a lot of fun. I was there for a couple of days as well. PS - Madrasis, dont even start with the "knowledgeable-u"

Spoilt by this. We can't appreciate something apparently without taking a dig at something else. :facepalm:

[Sachinism]

Great write up. Spoilt by this. We can't appreciate something apparently without taking a dig at something else. :facepalm:

Time of the month? Seriously you catching feelings over that comment? :facepalm: