It was the highest crowd attendance this Indian Premier League (IPL) season at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal on Sunday, clearly indicating how much Hyderabadis wanted to see their favourite team through to the play offs. The home team did not disappoint their fans a bit in the last game at Uppal being a must win game for Hyderabad, winning convincingly with seven balls to spare.
The fans cheered everything their favourite stars did on field, proving once again as to why Hyderabad is a tough nut to crack at home conditions. Says B Saikrishna, who attended five of the SRH matches at RGIC stadium, “Though we do not have great names, we have played to the fullest potential so far. And there is no reason why we should not make it to the finals.” Adding more, he says, “I am definitely going to be present at the stadium next year to cheer the SRH.” He was not the only one. Many of the fans promised to be back next year. Ashish Bahwani, a BCom student, says, “IPL is the ultimate entertainment and the RGIC stadium has been absolutely great for the home team. We are going to be the champions this year and I am going to be back here next year too.”
For Kolkata Knight Riders fans, who were hoping for some consolation being the defending champions, it was not a great day. “We have some great players but somehow they were not getting the combinations right. It was nice to see Yusuf return back to form today. But we are sure, KKR will be back to the top, next season,” hoped Kala Dattatreya, a private employee from Chikkadpally.
With Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Rajastan Royals already making it to the play offs, some SRH fans hoped that they get to play Rajasthan in the playoffs. “All three teams are tough to beat. Having defeated Rajastan Royals, we would like our players to repeat the same in the playoffs and then take on Mumbai, who were also defeated by us recently,” explained Md Abdul, a businessman from Saidabad, who was confident that SRH will win IPL 2013.