India vs England - T20 match - Party at Wankhede

[Magneto]

After returning to Mumbai yesterday (December 22) after having spent a few hectic days at the Nagpur Test and the jungles of Kanha, I wonder for a while whether I should go to the Wankhede Stadium; after all, I've not seen a T20 international yet (from the ground), and Wankhede was hosting its first T20I ever. For a moment I also consider the fact that for the last 13 months, the team I have supported has not won a single match when I have been at the ground, but reject the thought since superstitions don't gel well with my sense of rationalism. As I check out the availability of tickets on Bookmyshow, I find one North Stand ticket remaining; a solitary ticket that was perhaps waiting for me. I buy the ticket promptly. I reach the stadium a few minutes late, and finally when I make it to Gate No. 5, a huge crowd stands in front of me trying to enter the stadium while being stopped by the police, who are just trying to control the crowd and ensure that everyone had a ticket and are properly frisked. On the other hand, Gate no. 6 is empty with only a few people walking in. People curse the stadium administration for not sharing the crowd between the two gates, since that could have avoided the chaos and commotion at the gates. Intermittent bursts of cheer from within are heard meaning India is doing well, and people whisper that Kohli is on song. As I manage to enter the stadium and find my seat in the midst of a thousand raucous revellers, Kohli promptly gets out. And the match starts for me. a) Loudest cheer after entering - As Gautam Gambhir crawls pretending to play the role of an old-fashioned sheet anchor, the crowd really gets impatient. They keep shouting 'Gambhir, out ho ja, India to jeetna hai' and the likes and celebrate with great gusto when Gambhir finally miscues a pull shot off Luke Wright and walks back to the pavilion. Rohit and his talent - As Rohit Sharma drives Luke Wright through covers for a couple of deliveries in the 13th over, whispers are heard all around about his prodigious talent and how unlucky he is not to have played a Test yet. The whispers vanish automatically as Rohit gets cleaned up by a straighter one from Tredwell in the very next over. c) The frenzy - Wankhede goes bonkers the whole evening as people stand on the stairs in every stand. A lot of them wear Malinga wigs, have their faces painted and probably take pride in obstructing the view of the other spectators. Their constant excuse is that all the seats are filled up, when they have their seat numbers written clearly on their tickets (which they can easily claim). The rest of the crowd are busy relishing the party atmosphere, guzzling cokes and savouring pizzas, getting themselves photographed and hoping that fours and sixes would be hit on every given opportunity. Some of the more serious viewers make use of the Airtel balloon flyers effectively by tap on the shoulders of people obstructing their view, asking them to buzz off. And somewhere along this madness, 20 overs get bowled and India score 177. d) The interval - People expecting to see some Karbonn Kamaal catches or a DJ playing music get disappointed now. They only see Sourav Ganguly walking into the ground (amidst 'Dada' 'Dada' chants), Sidhu and Rameez Raza walking out of the ground with Sidhu playing to the gallery with his antics, Dinda warming up by bowling to Jeff Dawes (probably) and Awana joining him later, and Ashwin doing the same to Ambati Rayudu (with Chawla joining him later). e) The 'Awana' incident - The crowd now brace themselves for the chase. The North Stand Level 1 people have been gentle all evening with the English fielders without heckling them much (only Dernbach was told 'Dernbach, go back'), and they get ready to cheer up the Indian fielders on the boundary line. As Dinda gets ready to bowl the first over to Michael Lumb, Parvinder Awana gets placed at third man right in front of us. As Dinda bowls the first delivery, Lumb plays to third man straight at Awana. Awana charges at the ball, bends down to collect it, fails to cover it completely, fumbles, and lets the ball go to the boundary. A moment of silence transpires as the crowd look at Awana with utter disbelief. Hanging his head with shame, Awana manages to pick up the ball and sends it back. Back to their senses, the crowd shout out - 'Awana, ghar ja', 'Bas bas, aur bowling nahi milega' and suggest alternatives - 'Awana, next time topi se lapat le' and so on. Awana smiles back nervously. After the over, Raina walks up to Dinda and encourages him. f) The old man with the hammer - As Awana fires a bouncer in the first ball of the next over, the crowd appreciate momentarily. However, he is taken to the cleaners in the next two deliveries, and the booing starts again. Suddenly, the umpires gesticulate at someone, and an old man runs into the stadium with a hammer followed by another man with a sack. The crowd cheer at the old man (the loudest cheer of the night) as he runs in, and almost shooes him off as he takes too much time to run out. g)Awana is back - As Awana is sent back at the same position for the next over, the crowd throw some jibes at him asking him to be alert now. Dinda bowls a few deliveries and suddenly, Hales pulls one. The ball flies a little left of Awana, he takes a moment to judge it, gets into perfect position, appears to judge it correctly, grabs the ball with both hands and somehow fumbles it. The ball spills out of his hand, hits his head and falls on the ground. Dinda looks helplessly at Awana, it seems he could cry now. The crowd react with a bit of rage, and as the replay is shown a couple of times, Awana wishes he could dig a hole and bury himself inside. As his close-up is shown on the giant screen, it melts a few hearts. The waterboys of the team Jaddu, Rayudu and Mithun suddenly show up and Rayudu pats on Awana's back. The crowd boo at the waterboys. Someone throws a paper rocket from somewhere. Raina comes down to Awana to whisper a few words. As Awana comes back to his spot, someone in the crowd asks - 'Oye, Raina kya bola'? Some of the elders in the crowd advises the bullies - 'Don't do that, he's getting nervous'. h) Ashwin takes over - Ashwin now warms up before getting started. He bowls a few delivers at Awana and Awana bowls back. It gets the crowd into splits - they say - 'Ha ha, theek se practise kara'. The over starts - Awana stops a ball at deep backward square now - and the crowd claps. After the over, as Ashwin takes Awana's position in front of the North Stand crowd - the crowd cheers 'Ashwin, Ashwin' and Ashwin waves and responds. Someone sings for Ashwin - 'You're my pumpkin, pumpkin, hello hunny bunny'. i) Crowd chat - The parallel party in the crowd goes on. Impressed by Lumb, a spectator asks an informed cricket fan - 'Lumb kis team ke liye khelta hai? (For which team does Michael Lumb play?). The cricket fan looks confused and mumbles - 'England'. Spectator - 'No no, I mean ...' Cricket fan - 'Hampshire I think' Spectator - 'Arey, India mein!' Cricket fan (finally getting the point) - 'Oh Rajasthan Royals, now Deccan Chargers I think' ... and looks completely confused. A mother and her unclad baby is shown on the giant screen during the 6th over. The crowd cheer them on. A disappointed teenager remarks - 'Dost ne sahi bola tha, nanga jaana, tabhi dikhaega TV mein'. A samosa vendor comes to sell samosas. A middle-aged man buys a couple of samosas and digs his teeth into one of them. He discovers it has no filling. As he protests, the vendor arrogantly says 'Main kya karoon, maine toh nahi banaya hai!' The middle-aged man offers him a mutilated currency note and says - 'Maine bhi nahi banaya hai'. The people around laugh. j) Yuvi, Yuvi - To spice up things, Yuvi gets into the attack. 'Yuvi, Yuvi' chants begin and reach a high point as he takes the first wicket. In Yuvi's next over, Dinda occupies the fielding position in front of the North Stand. As Hales sweeps one, Dinda runs in anticipation of the ball even before the ball in seen. He nearly falls over trying to field, but manages to return it on time. The crowd advise Dinda - 'Ball dekhke bhaag, e Dinda'. The very next ball Wright cuts behind point, Awana fields it but returns it really wide of the bowler. More sheepish close-ups of Awana on the big screen and giggles from the audience. k) The beginning of the death - As Chawla runs in hard and misses Patel's catch off Awana in the 16th over, Awana applauds the effort, probably empathising with him. The crowd see the irony. A few deliveries later, Awana falls over after bowling his delivery providing more entertainment all over. A confused crow with a morsel of food in its beak circles the ground a few times, probably wondering whether it has lost way. l) The hope for redemption - Dinda takes a wicket and goes for a SIX off the last ball in his 18th over. As he comes back to his fielding position, the audience explain - 'Dinda, short pitch nahi re'. Awana goes back to bowl his 19th over. As he concedes four singles and a four off 5 balls, the crowd state - 'Last ball dot daal de, sab maaf ho jayega'. Buttler hits the last ball for a huge SIX and Awana goes back to where he had started from. m) The last over - The party is almost over with England needing 9 runs in the last over. Kohli stands in front of North Stand now, seething with anger. He kicks a paper rocket lying in front of him out of the ground. The kid in the seat behind me asks his dad as to why Kohli is looking angry. His dad explains that Kohli is angry because India is losing. The kid looks back at Kohli. A bunch of teenagers debate in how many balls would the match get over. One adamantly states - 'It will go on till the last ball' ... and adds 'Dinda death mein mast hai'. His friends laugh at him. Every ball gets cheered from then on as England play out singles. Buttler misses the 5th ball but he and Morgan scamper through for a single. Dhoni takes a shot at the stumps and misses. The crowd sigh. As England need 3 off the last ball, Dinda backs out from the point of delivery. The crowd laughs. Some people chant - 'Chewtiya banaya, bada mazaa aaya'. Some debate whether it is ethically right. Dinda comes in one final time - Morgan stands deep in the crease and smokes it. 26,000 people follow the ball as it goes high and reaches the press box. Dinda sits down on his knees on the pitch and stares blankly. He punches the ground a few times. The crowd stare at the ground in silence. Words of despair are heard - 'Arey, slower daalne ka tha, yorker kyon try kiya'? and the like. Almost involuntarily, people rush towards the gates trying to make a hasty exit, ending up causing a commotion at the exit. Few people stay back to see the presentation, and chant 'Yuvi, Yuvi' one last time as Yuvraj gets the 'Man of the Series' award. I walk off; it's another loss for me this calendar year, and I wonder whether I should catch the Indo-Pak Bangalore T20 as planned.

[Ultimate_Game]

Great writeup but pls stay away from India's matches in the future

[Old guy]

lmfaooooooooooooooo awana will retire after this match im sure now :(( ur perfect record is unharmed u entered kohli out...u hate him dont u ?:hysterical:

[Tridibans_16]

HAHAHAHA Somethings never change. Please don't go on the 25th

[Tridibans_16]

BTW great read. Well done :clap:

[Vinci]

dada, daarun writeup! :hatsoff:

[maniac]

Big fan of sauravs match reports ......great read as usual :two_thumbs_up:

[Old guy]

Big fan of sauravs match reports ......great read as usual :two_thumbs_up:

this was the best one yet imo maybe cos its not written for cric info:cantstop: i was literally laughing like mad man in car while reading this:giggle:

[Nova]

Very nice writeup. Enjoyed it. :hatsoff:

Someone sings for Ashwin - 'You're my pumpkin' date=' pumpkin, hello hunny bunny'. [/quote'] :cantstop: :hysterical: :giggle: Some things don't change... but yeah don't let this stop you from going to another match. It's just superstition. :dontmentionit:

[Old guy]

Very nice writeup. Enjoyed it. :hatsoff: :cantstop: :hysterical: :giggle: Some things don't change... but yeah don't let this stop you from going to another match. It's just superstition. :dontmentionit:

losing is worth it ur articles are more fun then winning B->

[NameGoesHere]

'Axcellent' write up. Well done!

[dangerman1985]

A samosa vendor comes to sell samosas. A middle-aged man buys a couple of samosas and digs his teeth into one of them. He discovers it has no filling. As he protests, the vendor arrogantly says 'Main kya karoon, maine toh nahi banaya hai!' The middle-aged man offers him a mutilated currency note and says - 'Maine bhi nahi banaya hai'. The people around laugh. :hysterical::cantstop:

[Magneto]

Great writeup but pls stay away from India's matches in the future

Thanks :bow: ... just one more match I guess :cantstop:

lmfaooooooooooooooo awana will retire after this match im sure now :(( ur perfect record is unharmed u entered kohli out...u hate him dont u ?:hysterical:

I hate the hype around Kohli and love his passion about winning. Comes from his great work ethic and his lack of complacence about his success. It's not easy to keep the fire burning in each and every match. Though Indian cricket fans are generally cruel ... here no one was that rude to Awana ... they were casually making fun of him ... but still ...

HAHAHAHA Somethings never change. Please don't go on the 25th

BTW great read. Well done :clap:

Will not go on the 25th :(( :bow:

dada' date=' daarun writeup! :hatsoff:[/quote'] Thanks Man! :woot: B-> :hitler: Cricinfo reports have their own formats and you can't add all the masala It's not really a series of jokes that you'd have to laugh like a mad man :idunno: :dance: I know it's just superstition but this year has been really bad :(( Thanks! :--D

[Old guy]

well i m sure while writing it even u were laughing like mad man :beee:

[Tiger-Don]

woot woot saurav

[gaurav92]

Superb piece yet again Saurav dada :icflove: But please refrain from going to the stadium

[Magneto]

Superb piece yet again Saurav dada :icflove: But please refrain from going to the stadium

Thank you Gaurav dada :bow:

[Sidhoni]

Great article as usual. Poor Awana! P.S : Please stop going to India's matches!

[Magneto]

Great article as usual. Poor Awana! P.S : Please stop going to India's matches!

I've finally decided that I'll not go for India matches anymore :--D

[daindian]

You think his record is bad I've been 9 india games in the UK and india and got tickets to one more. Test @lords draw, test@oval @draw, odi@lords lost. T20@oval vs pak won, t20 vs windies @lords lost, t20 vs, England @lords lost, odi@eden vs Sri Lanka won, test Lords lost, odi @lords tie and i have tickets vs pakistan @edgebaston in june Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2