VISAKHAPATNAM: Cricket fever has gripped the city as ACA-VDCA stadium is all set to host the India-Australia match on Sunday. The city got a chance to host the big cricket match within four months after it hosted the second match of Paytm ODI series, between India and West Indies — a one-day international — originally scheduled to be held at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, but was shifted to Visakhapatnam as the MP Cricket Association had reportedly refused to accept the condition on complimentary passes.
With India-Australia T20 match being held on Sunday almost all the tickets have been sold out and this has perhaps happened for the first time after the India-Pakistan match, according to DS Varma, vice-president of VDCA.
He said that with India doing very well in matches of both home and away series the high profile match against Australia generated a lot of interest among cricket-crazy youth of the city. Varma said that it was good to see full house in the stadium and Vizag had become the favourite choice for the home team. He said that the match would be a good preparatory game of the Indian team before the World Cup.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and skipper Virat Kohli have huge fan following in the city. Crowd will, however, reserve maximum cheers for Dhoni on the ground. Dhoni also considers Vizag his lucky ground where he had hit big knocks against Pakistan.
Rajasekhar, an avid cricket fan, said that the T20 match between Australia and India would be feast for eyes, as both the teams are in a great form. He said that they were expecting total paisa vasool on Sunday.
As large number of youth thronged the stadium B ground on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the Indian and the Australian players, as they attended their practice session.
The youth were seen lustily cheering at the sight of their favourite players and some of them captured their favourite players with their mobile phone cameras. Some climbed the terrace of nearby apartments to watch the practice session of players from a vantage point.
There had been huge demand for tickets and all the tickets were sold out two days before the match. Some of the cricket fans were reportedly running from pillar to post to get a complimentary ticket for the match.
Srikar, a software employee from Pune and fan of Rohit Sharma, said he had come all the way to watch him play. He said he was excited about the match and not worried about the result.
VDCA secretary K Parthasarathy and former Test umpire, said it has been four years since the T20 match was last played in Vizag. He said that ACA was supervising the match and were assisting to hold it too.
With restriction on number of complimentary tickets they were unable to meet the demand from cricket bodies and others, he said, adding the India-Australia match would be a tough contest and both have even chance to win.