A lifetime Experience – India Vs Pak 1st T20, Dec 25, 2012

A few days back, one of my friends told me that there is a T20 match going to be organized in Bangalore on Christmas between India and Pakistan.We both were excited about that and started looking for the tickets when it will be available, following the google news everyday. Then around Dec 10, we got the news that the tickets will be available online from Dec 17 and on-counter from Dec 21. Though the capacity of the stadium is more than 30,000 , only 7268 tickets were released for the public. All the tickets online had a cost of at least Rs 1600/-. So we decided to go for on-counter tickets. On Dec 21, we (myself and Subhashis) started early at 6:30 from home and when we reached the stadium, there was a long queue of around 5000 people ahead of us while total of 5500 on-counter tickets were released. After waiting for around 5 hours, we finally got two tickets (one person one ticket rule). On 25th, match was scheduled to start at 7PM so to be on the safe side, we started at 4 PM from home. We reached the stadium at 5PM but yes, there was a long queue waiting for us. After around one and half hour in queue, we finally reached inside and yes, the view was a pleasure to the eyes. It was a packed house. With India batting first after losing the toss, Rahane and Gambhir provided a steady start but as soon as they were gone, Indian batting fell down like a peck of cards posting a total of 133. Though for me , the highlight of the inning was Ajmal and Afridi both getting hit for the Six by Rahane and Yuvraj respectively. With Yuvraj making a pleasant hit on the very first ball he faced from Afridi, one could clearly see the pressure on the other bowlers bowling wides while Yuvi was on strike. But Yuvraj failed to captialize on that.
As 134 not being a big target, everybody was certain that Pakistan will be able to chase it easily but , yes there is a big BUT, because this ain’t any ordinary match, this was India vs Pakistan, the arch rivals who when faces each other, even the smaller targets looks like a mountain to the other team and that is what exactly happened in the match. The debutant Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who took 3 wickets in his first two overs and ended with an impressive spell of 4-0-9-3, brought back the energy in the crowd. India was back in game. Shoaib Malik and Captain Hafeez had a tough task to accompalish and one should say that they clearly succeeded in doing that, they built up a big partnership taking India out of the game again. In last 3 overs, pakistan had to make 18 runs with 7 wickets in hand but the Drama was not over yet. In 18th over, Ishant Sharma took wicket of Hafeez breaking his partnership with Malik. On the very next ball, Jadeja took a fabulous catch of Malik but the ball was declared No-ball and Akmal would face the free hit delivery. Though he could not hit the ball but after that delivery, Sharma and Akmal exchanged few words and then there was all the players with umpires breaking out between the two. However, it was fun to watch 6.5 Feet tall Sharma staring down on a little shorter Akmal. One could clearly see the anger and frustration Akmal had in the way he tried to hit the next delivery. Malik talked with him must be telling to control the anger but in the very next over, he got out off Dinda trying a shot over third man. Last over, Pakistan needed 10 runs and all the fast bowlers had already bowled their quotas. Hence came the responsibility to Jadeja who surely would not be the best choice against a batsman like Malik, one of the very good batsman against spin in international arena. India lost the match with Jadeja got hit for a six on 4th ball but this match reflected that Dhoni have started to lose his charm with making so many mistakes, not having a far sighted ness for the last over reserve, using Kohli instead of Yuvi when Pakistan was under pressure after losing early wickets, and so many others.
Well, other than cricket, there was much more in the Chinnaswamy stadia to enjoy. Maxican wave, people standing and shouting on every single shot, slognas like “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, “Sun le Beta pakistan, baap hai tera Hindustan”, “India, India”, “down down Pakistan” and so many other, a small group of Pakistani fans trying to cheer among the shouts of Indian fans, cheering of Indian fans. It was really a memorable and enjoyable 3 and half hours of fun.