I,and a couple of friends of mine, had decided to watch the India-Australia D/N encounter on 28th October, 2009 at the VCA stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur, a day after the Australian tour itinerary was released. After some hardship we,finally, got the tickets around 48 hours before the match. That the tickets were sponsored is a different story.
We set off for Nagpur on match day morning and collected our tickets from a relative’s place of one of my accompanying friends. We, then, began our journey to our destination almost 3 hours before the start of play. It was a bit stressful but the excitement overshadowed the stress. The road leading to the stadium was abuzz with vehicles moving fast and furiously. Everyone was in a hurry to get to the stadium, even the commando jeep that , apparently ,was running late. Incidentally, the team hotel was along the same road and when we passed by the team buses were about to welcome their passengers. Unsurprisingly, most of the people on their way to the stadium stopped and parked their vehicles by the side of the road near the hotel to see their stars. A huge crowd assembled in front of the hotel and surprisingly, they behaved well. Meanwhile, we kept on moving.
Upon reaching the stadium just less than 2 hours before the start we were welcomed by the sight of very long queues and we willed ourselves for the upcoming suffering. We reached our gate and were shocked to find that there was no queue. We checked our tickets in disbelief and found out that we were, really, at the right gate. It was all hunky-dory until I was frisked by the cops and came the shocker – Sorry, cameras are not allowed inside. An argument followed but no favourable conclusion was reached. The disappointment of being disallowed to carry the camera inside lingered for the entire duration of the match. In no time we were inside this splendid stadium and it was still about 90 minutes to go for the start. A few minutes later the players started making their way out for practice with the Australians leading the way.
By the time the match started almost all the stands were full and it was a carnival-like atmosphere. Indians batted first and had a decent start but looked in a bit of a bother when they lost 3 wickets under 100 runs. However, they consolidated in the middle overs and finished off the innings superbly. Australia did not begin their chase well and the match seemed over by the end of the 10th over with 309 runs needed with 7 wickets in hand. People started to leave soon. It was a comprehensive win for the Indians and we left satisfied unlike on the previous occasion in 2007. It was another stressful journey back home on the cards. Fortunately, it didn’t take more time to get out of the premises than we had thought and we were on our way back late in the night and arrived home in the wee hours the next day.
For more on this match read the Fan Following Report written by me for cricket website 'Cricinfo' http://es.pn/cXT6Jj
