MUMBAI: Roll back the clock a decade. A packed Wankhede Stadium can be intimidating for the visiting team. The raucous the crowd creates can at times unsettle the opponent. In the 2008 edition of the IPL, even before Lalit Modi started dreaming of fans becoming loyal to teams from their city, Wankhede had showed it in the maiden season. Their support for the home team had even prompted the then Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh to quip: “It was pretty one-sided for Mumbai (support). Don’t forget that some of the Punjab boys also play for India.”
As the tournament has evolved, a few sides have managed to create a city loyalty which at times has been tested only by Chennai Super Kings. While at Wankhede, Eden Gardens, M Chinnaswamy and Chepauk the home teams have struck a strong chord with the spectators, the away-fan concept is limited mostly to Dhoni & Co. Last season, when the men in yellow outnumbered Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, it even prompted their shell-shocked owners to dial their opponents wondering how they managed to do it and led to them keeping a tab on the number of online tickets being picked up by those sitting in Chennai.
On Wednesday, as the crowd was slowly building up for the Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings tie, the roads leading to Wankhede had almost an equal number of fan distribution with many sporting the No 7 jersey of Chennai. On match days, taking a walk along Wallajah Road or Bells Road near Chepauk in Chennai, one can get lost in a sea of yellow. It’s rare to spot an away-team shirt, never mind the star factor the opponent has.
While Chennai gets fans in most venues, in terms of rivalry that exists between these two teams, it was quite astonishing to see so many yellow shirts occupying the blue-theme stands at the Wankhede. Never mind it was a weekday, it was impossible to spot a vacant chair at the stadium. While IPL hasn’t given a serious thought about an away-corner that exists in football or NBA, the yellow shirts spread through the stands ensured Chennai didn’t miss their home.
At times, with Saravanan — Chennai’s well-known fan — leading the charge, the Sunil Gavaskar stand made as much noise for the Super Kings as when the home team had its tail up. Even the North Stand, which is considered to be partisan towards the local team, had plenty in yellow.
But they had little to cheer. Chennai suffered their first defeat of the season as Mumbai coasted to a 37-run win thanks to the all-round effort of Hardik Pandya. Choosing to bowl first, ordinary fielding and death bowling meant Chennai had to chase 171 for victory, way above what they would have expected considering Mumbai had a mere 57 on board after 10 overs.Chasing a big total, Chennai needed runs from their top-order, but except for Kedar Jadhav none made any contributions as Mumbai improved their head-to-head record between these two sides to 14-11.