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| Outside the gates of Old Trafford the atmosphere was more than buzzing. |
It is time to go back a year to relive the WC 2019 match between India and Pakistan at Old Trafford Manchester. It was the match which was the toast of the World Cup with several Indians and Pakistanis travelling from their country to watch. This was a match which had a House Full status month's before the the event. As a gentleman from ICC admitted to me during the Australia match -'This is bigger than even the finals.'
It is strange that I did not write about this exciting event a year back. Actually on returning to India we were soon upon Semi's and Finals. Semi's broke India's heart and Finals broke the world's heart. For a long time all other matches were forgotten. WC finals at Lord's was rated as the most exciting ODI ever. India Vs Pakistan took a back seat.
We landed at Manchester from Dublin after a lovely week there. Decision to visit Ireland had been taken at the expense of the match versus New Zealand. It was the best decision as this match was washed out. This was the craziest summer in England in a long while with incessant rains all over. Several matches got washed out. Ireland was cold and cloudy but rain did not disrupt our merry making there. While delving into several pints of Guinness and enjoying some amazing pubs and rock bands - our mind was far away at Manchester. Rain forecast was being checked everyday and consensus at that time pointed towards a washed out match. And so it seemed with the tarmac at Manchester airport totally wet as we landed on the afternoon before the match. It was damp, it was cloudy, it was gloomy and things just didn't look optimistic.
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| It had been raining since the morning on the day we reached Manchester |
In a couple of hours things started changing. Clouds disappeared and we had bright sunshine. People came out and pubs became full. Our hotel 'Roomzzz Manchester city' was in heart of the town. It was next to Chinatown and had a nice pub called 'The Old monkey' nearby at princess street. It was a perfect place to discuss the modalities of next day's match over some Irish Whisky. Our Dublin hangover was still there. Staying next to the Chinatown demanded a luxurious Chinese meal which we had had at an upmarket Yang Sing restaurant near the hotel.
My dear friend Murali Kartik (former Indian player and now a prominent commentator) had also arrived at the same time as us and as he had played for Lancashire county, Manchester had been home for him many years ago. We got to know quite about the city of Manchester, its sweet spots and about Old Trafford cricket ground from him that evening. He made sure that all our seats were together so one could enjoy the match to the fullest. The cricket ground is next to the Soccer stadium of the historic club Manchester United. We intended to go there after the match to get a feel of the famous football club. We never got a chance to do that.
Excitement woke me up early on the morning of the match and I immediately went out to check the clouds and prospects of rain. It had rained at night but it was just about cloudy in the morning. There were many Indians in our hotel who were there for the match. Fingers crossed we reached the stadium an hour before the match and the atmosphere was just amazing. It was a sea of humanity at each gate and slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Pakistan Zindabad' were reverberating everywhere. It was blues and greens everywhere. Tickets had been sold much in advance but people had come without tickets also hoping to find some at a premium. Sale and purchase did happen and many found their way inside.
Security had been very lax at London but here it was more stringent but not 20% as bad as Feroze Shah Kotla. Bags, food etc were allowed inside and scanning was quick. As we entered the stadium and climbed the steps to our stand, the excitement could be felt. Toss was lost by India and they were put into bat. Discussion was - Will the ball move ? Will our openers be able to handle the Pakistan quickies ? Will we miss Dhawan ? Will Rohit perform ?
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| Marking our presence at the ground |
Well, he did perform. He scored 140 runs and looked good for another 60 till he got out to a loose shot. But after initial carefulness he was totally in command and even we would be surprised to see his score gallop as he didn't appear to be in such a hurry. Rahul played a competent innings and Kohli did what he does best when batting with Rohit - gave good support and scored 70+ . Mohd Amir looked good and bowled well taking 3 wickets. India looked for a score well beyond 350 but the rains came and momentum was lost. We finally scored 336 - which appeared to be a good score. But was it good enough ?
Around the 47th over when rains came I went out to get something to eat. This was a big mistake. Entire population of the stadium had come out and it was chaotic with people trying to move but just couldn't. I couldn't go forward nor could come back. There were just too many people and it was frightening. It took a long while to get out of this logjam. I missed India's last four overs due to that but was thankful that there had been no stampede and generally people were well behaved.
It appeared that ratio of India to Pakistan spectators would have been 60:40. We were right next to the Pakistan pavilion. Pakistani spectators didn't have much to cheer during India's innings. Rohit Sharma and his innings had made Indians extra buoyant. We were all flying high - cheering lustily and gulping down beer.
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| I was there |
While coffee and Beer was available at many points - for food one had to walk to the main square. Each stall was well organised but had long queues. Many had brought their own paranthas or sandwiches from home. A few people were collecting the Beer glasses. Why are they doing it as they are clearly spectators I asked ? Well, for a Beer glass one had to give a deposit which was refunded at the time of return. Most people didn't care about this refund. So for many others it became an opportunity to earn a few Pounds !
A very important thing happened when Pakistan started batting. This could have had a huge repercussion on the result had the match run close. But as Pakistan middle order capitulated and match became one sided, this event was easily ignored. India's star opening bowler who could swing the ball prodigiously in English conditions -Bhuvnehswar Kumar- broke down in his 3rd over. India was a bowler short in this critical game. But as if by miracle the part time bowler , Vijay Shankar, who was given the ball to complete the over picket up the wicket of Imam ul Haq. The roar must have deafened the downtown Manchester.
We then saw two highly rated youngsters Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam in the middle. In next few months Babar Azam has established himself as one of the top batsmen in the world. They were very good and kept the score board ticking. The scoreboard ticked so much that they kept pace with DL run rate. With the skies becoming dark, things wern't looking too bright anymore for India. It was time for Pakistan spectators to come alive while we watched the match nervously with the head constantly moving towards the sky. The time when the entire stadium cheered in unison was when the sun came from behind the clouds and shone brightly for a couple of overs.
Kuldeep then bowled a magic ball. The ball turned from outside off taking Babar Azam by surprise and hit the stumps. Babar Azam b Kuldeep Yadav 48. I have watched the replay of this ball several times since then. The match turned and Pakistan collapsed. Fakhar Zaman also went soon after. From 117-1 they suddenly became 129-5. As Pakistan pavillion was next to where we were sitting, we could see the Pakistani players going to the wicket and soon coming back with heads bowed. The manager and support staff sat there holding their heads as Indian fans became delirious. One actually felt sorry for Shoaib Malik as he went off the first ball. And suddenly one could see many more beer glasses in our stand.
Pakistan were 166-6 in 35 overs when rains came again. The match was virtually over. The stands became empty. It was now an impossible target for Pakistan - they had to score 136 runs in 5 overs. But die hard fanatics like us remained in the stadium till India were declared winners. These 5 overs were fun overs as my neighbour kept shouting to Indian players on boundary to have mercy and let Pakistan score more runs. This of course did not go down well with handful of Pakistan spectators who could do nothing but grind their teeth.
By coincidence it was a Pakistani cab driver who drove us back to hotel. He was full of praise for India and captain Kohli. He was anguished by the team Pakistan had sent. We tipped him well.
We needed to celebrate that evening and thousands of Indians had the same intent. Bookings could not be obtained in good Indian restaurants so we decided to take a chance at 'Dishoom', the well known Indian food chain restaurant. Kartik used his charm on the hostess and she did produce a table for us after a short wait. It might have been a fancy upmarket restaurant but when someone gave a call of - Bharat Mata ki - the entire restaurant stood up to a thunderous 'Jai!' Everyone then toasted to the victorious Indian cricket team. They had made all this travel worthwhile for all of us.
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| Celebration Dinner at Dishoom, Manchester |
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