First ever Guest article on Straight Drives. Shruti Mehta pens her first piece about her experiences at the Mumbai vs Chennai IPL match played at the Wankhede Stadium.
It’s rare to find a household in India where cricket fever does not exist. I come from one where my younger brother, as every young Indian boy, once aspired to become Sachin Tendulkar. After the introduction of IPL, 4 years back, the atmosphere in my house would be electric, with each one of us choosing our favourite teams and players and cheering on. IPL 3 for me was quite an experience, as not only did I follow it religiously, I also went for 2 matches, including the spectacular finals at the D.Y. Patil stadium. However, the excitement for IPL 4 was dulled after the super exciting World Cup journey of the Indian cricket team.
The teams I decided to support this year are Mumbai Indians (I’m a Mumbaikar), Rajasthan Royals (for my marwadi roots and Dravid love), Pune Warriors (I studied there plus new found love for Yuvraj) and a wee bit support to Delhi (for the Morne Morkel love of course). So I jumped when my cousin called saying he had tickets for MI v/s CSK at Wankhede.
This being my first visit to Wankhede left me super excited (and of course, the excitement of watching Sachin and Dhoni play live again). The atmosphere was electric with MI fans shouting away. The tickets in the Sachin Tendulkar stand offered a spectacular view and we were all set to scream our lungs out and cheer for the God. MI’s innings started off slow with a brilliant bowling attack by Albie Morkel. It was heart breaking to see Sachin get out so soon and miss the orange cap. Rohit Sharma however, chose this day to prove to others why the Ambanis paid him that huge sum. Rohit and Ambati set the pitch on fire with their shots. Symonds also made the needed contribution to set up a somewhat achievable total of 164 for Chennai Super Kings.
CSK made a start with a boundary but what stays in my mind is the way Pollard lunged to try and stop that four. That man just stands out anywhere, not only with his height but also his excellent fielding. He just reaches out and grabs the ball where others run behind it. Mike Hussey and Badrinath seemed to have set the momentum in place when out went Hussey and the game swung back in favour of India. Harbhajan Singh was in top form, probably inspired by looking at someone holding a poster saying special ‘Pav bhajji’ for Dhoni with a very cute caricature of Bhajji.
Excellent catches and brilliant fielding led to Harbhajan Singh walking away with 5 wickets and the man of the match. I must mention that every time the commentators talked about the Mumbai Indians fielding, the camera zoomed in on a grinning Jonty Rhodes enjoying the match.
Needless to say, Mumbai Indians won the match, leaving most people in the stadium happy (except the uncle sitting behind us who insisted on abusing the MI team in a most unsporting way).
Post this match, my interest in IPL this year is slowly coming back. It might not evoke as strong emotions as for the match winning Indian cricket team, but it’s still a joy watching my favourite players on the field. I hope to go back to Wankhede for one of the play off matches. Till then, I will be happy yelling at the TV and cheering for my favorite teams.
Follow Shruti Mehta on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/shrumehta
No comments:
Post a Comment