I was all so excited about the fact that am gonna watch a cricket match live in a stadium for the first time in my life… Ironically, I never watched all the time in India (my house in Chennai being only 3 -5 kms away from Chepauk stadium) but with in my first month in South Africa.
This is the 5th ODI between India Vs. South Africa. The series so far is in a balance with 2 wins each. With pride at stake, South Africa should be favorite but you can never write off current Young Indian team. Things running in my mind until the morning of the match…
-- Jo’burg is predominantly cold place so it will be pleasant to chill around in grass
-- Might get good glimpse of players in close vicinity and chat with them
-- get a feeling of the real time pace and look of a match
-- long drive to beautiful centurion supersport park
-- The form of life Indian team is now
-- Can further test the efficiency of my new GPS
How did the day went through ?
The parking was a chaos in Supersport park. As soon as I drived to the stadium there were this bunch of guards rounded me and offered a safe and easy parking space for 50 Rands. I went for it and I was happy that its only less than 4 min walk to stadium. Later, I felt more lucky when there was rain and water level was rising in the free parking space behind the stadium.
The prediction was a thunderstorm for the day and was surprised to see bright sunny morning and the smile didn’t last for ever.. Around 10 am we started feeling the discomfort due to heat and around 11 am we are half fried human meat on the grass… And that was the time the transition took place from choclate brown to dark choclate brown (guess what ??? My colour ofcourse : - ( )
Rubbing salt on the wounds, Dhoni chose to bowl first and made SA feel good toss to lose with their master class batting effort. Harbajhan and Munaf was standing near us in the boundary during the innings and Bhajji was like a robot and didn’t even waved his hands for whatsoever… rightly so, he got the worst swears from the crowd all the 20 overs he stood their.. He complained to the security guards and they didn’t give a S***T
The 40 mins rain in the afternoon was the worst part of my day.. We had to stand all the time with our mats in our hand… luckily it wasn’t a thunder storm. The Indian innings started with wickets flow being generous than run flow… as it looked the match will wrap up before even Indians reach 100, we took the obvious decision ‘TO LEAVE THE STADIUM WHEN THE TRAFFIC IS LESS’
We left after Harbhajan’s wicket thinking there is only a miracle could save India… The Wonderful part is that I was home on time to see Yousuf hammering under the cold living room with snacks and juices on my couch… No regrets as this series was one of the bravest fight back by Indian team with out front line batsmen on a South African pitch. I can still place my money on India for the upcoming world cup.
THE MORAL : Never ever watch an all day match right under the sun. Don’t trust any form of weather.
