It’s the 13th over. Kochi Blue Tigers star player Sanju Samson is on the crease. The bowler takes his position and makes his move. Sanju swings, connects. Several pairs of eyes, around 1,000, follow the ball as it goes high, looking as it is trying to kiss the skies. People hold their breath — Will the ball be caught? Or will the Keralite add another sixer to his name?
The crowd erupts as they get their answer seconds later. The ball has sailed over the fence. It’s a maximum. Amid the cheers, a child shouts, ‘Sanju, Sanju!’ Whistles rent the air.
The Kerala Cricket League match between Kochi Blue Tigers and Adani Trivandrum Royals on Thursday had all the ingredients of an exciting contest. The only thing that could be termed a dampener was the low attendance. Families, people of different age groups, were part of the crowd that came to witness the exciting match at the Greenfield Stadium. However, the numbers was nowhere near what the organisers had anticipated.
The authorities say the afternoon match on Thursday saw close to 1,000 people. “We expected a higher turnout, as our key players were here today,” says an official.
This has been the theme of this edition of the KCL. Exciting matches, low footfall. “There was one match in this edition in which the audience strength did go as high as 11,000,” says an organiser.
However, those who were among the crowd used every ounce of their lung power to ensure no six or four went by without cheers and whistles. The numbers were low, but the spirits were high.
The league officials expect the footfall to pick up in the stadium in the coming days. “Onam holidays are round the corner. We speculate a higher turnout in the coming days,” says an official.
Soon, a fan village, comprising mini-games and a cafeteria for the fans, will come at the venue, the authorities confirm. Coming back to the match, the crowd was awestruck when Sanju took the crease.
Though many missed Sanju in the previous match, he gave back all the love that came his way through his heavy hitting, scoring 62 runs from 37 balls, with four boundaries and five sixes. His innings was instrumental in raising the team’s score to a massive 191.
In what was nothing short of a thriller, Kochi Blue Tigers won by a small margin of nine runs. With middle-order batters Sanjeev Satheesan (70 off 46) and Abdul Basith (41 off 27) shining, Trivandrum players gave rough spells to Kochi bowlers in the second innings, making the match unpredictable till the last over.