Lemme tell u the most amazing news on earth...I went to watch the fourth day's play of the Test Match between India and Australia at the Chepauk Stadium yesterday(Oct 17)!!!
It was so damn good to see the match live.We waved banners and yelled like real maniacs letout from the asylum!Here's my whole story...
My cousin,my sister-Swetha,my father and I reached the stadium at 8 am on Sunday morning.And...what did we see there?Oh...A crowd that would give the ppl at Ranganathan street a run for their money had assembled there!Seriously,I thought that we definitely wouldn't get a ticket.
We joined the Rs.200 queue for the IOB stand.The Rs.150 queue moved real fast and I got pretty bugged standing there with the heat getting on my nerves and the queue remaining static!
Then this guy distributing free caps came and he informed us that there was a separate queue for ladies up in the front.So my sister and I immediately left to verify.We were let in and we were soon joined by the other two.We,after abt 20 minutes,got our tickets.I GOT THE TICKETS!!!
If you want to know how passionate people here are,about cricket,let me do the honours.An old man who had just undergone a cataract surgery was there buying the tickets before us.Then there was this patti who was so so shrewd.She kept talking to ppl and slowly slid to the front to get the tickets.The REALLY cunning woman!Also there was this guy with one hand fractured and dangling on a sling!My mother chips in that she saw on TV some ppl with year old babies!Look at that!!!We then moved in and were checked by metal detectors.
I just can't describe the feeling that overcame me when I first viewed the cricket pitch.But let me just try!It was an oval expanse of pleasant green grass cropped carefully,with a bald stripat the centre for the pitch.Nets had been put up and Brett Lee,Gilchrist,Sourav and Agarkar were practising.
Soon the nets were dismantledand the players returned to the dressing room.At 9:30,David Shepherd and Rudi Koertzen walked in amidst tumultous applause.
The Indian Cricket team then trotted in Spotless whites with Aussies Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie.
I spotted Dravid almost immediately.He walked in along with Birthday boy Kumble.But once the first over began I couldn't see him.He was in first slip and was hidden by the pillar blocking that lone strip of my view.
I saw the whole of the Indian and Aus team.Tho the fact remains that an Indian team without Tendulkar did look incomplete!!!HE IS AN ULTIMATE CRICKETER!!!No denying that!
In the pavillion were seen John Wright,John Buchanan,our statistics analyst-Mr.Ramakrishnan and Andrew Leipus(I think it was him!)
The first half was kinda slow and we spent all our time waving posters like "Gillespie Flee","Itz Jumboz Day-Happy Birthday!","JAMMY" etc.
The second half tho(post-lunch) was damn good,tho!Wickets fell and the crowd increased.We yelled,shrieked,waved and did everything a nutty,cricket-crazy cictizen ought to do!The whole stadium did that huge wave-like thing.We joined them.,Boy-oh-boy that was smashing!!!
Shepherd followed a custom the whole day.Whenever he had to stand at square-leg,he used to turn around,look atour stand,keep his hands on the hips and stare atus.We would shrik.Rudi did it too along with a bow and a wave of his hat!Sweet umpies!
Sehwag IS a darling!When he fielded in front of our stand he waved to us,clapped along with us,encouraged us to yell more and the like.Chweet guy,we cheered him madly when he came to bat later!
Laxman too was a dear.He waved and did a 'Namaskar' to us!Harbhajan also waved to our stand.
I was really lucky to be in the IOB stand.It was the most yell-your-lungs-out kind of stand and the most friendly and cheering one.All the cricketers and Umpires were friendly with OUR STAND ALONE!!!
Dravid was overparticular in arragingthe helmets.When there were three of them,he arranged them in the decreasing order of height(Parthiv's -smallest.Kaif-mid-size,Aakash Chopra/Laxman/Yuvi-large).When there wereonly two then he'd keep it face-to-faceas if they were talking to each other.
It was really one of the most thrilliest thing that has ever happened to me in my life!I am so happy.