This was a near perfect Sunday. Watching Gilly score the fastest century of IPL was the next best thing to watching Sachin Tendulkar play. Unfortunately, the 2nd one did not happen. But I did saw him! Me and bunch of my friends went to see the match between Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers at Dr D Y Patil stadium at Nerul in New Mumbai. After watching an actual match, I started appreciating IPL even more. The main advantage of such tournaments is that you dont need to to be loyal to any particular team. I supported Mumbai Indians during the match. But when Gilchrist went after Pollock and Jaysurya I was not disappointed at all. I enjoyed his each and every shot.
We were sitting in square region, so we were able to see the length and pace of the ball. Batsmen get so little time to react facing the pacers, you actually start admiring their skills. We were on the third floor. After the match, I went to see the other levels. You cant see a thing from the higher floors. The 2nd floor was rubbish. You cant see the lofted balls at all from there. Poor guys sitting there missed all the sixes. And the most expensive ones at the front were like sitting in a prison with the fence around.
The crowd was unbelievable. I cheered for each and every shot (and Gilly made sure that I was busy for the whole time). Not just me but each and everyone in the crowd celebrated Gilly’s sixes. With each shot, crowd started chanting ‘We want Sixer…We want sixer!’ Some of the other popular chants were-
‘Ch***ya banaya, bada maja aaya’ (with each misfield from chargers)
‘Symonds Go Back!’
and
‘Nehra hatao, match bachao’ (during Nehra’s disastrous spell)
And now the cheerleaders. First, see what Gadre thinks about the whole deal. Thanks to pathetic balling by MI, the local talent had nothing to cheer about in the second half. But they bugged us enough earlier. DC cheerleaders lapped around the ground at the start of DC innings. Its a good thing they dont understand Hindi or Marathi. The things that were being said to them…some things are better not understood!
Avnish has written extensively about our expedition. Take a look
