AHMEDABAD: India versus Pakistan is always going to be bigger than just a cricket game. If the past history and the rivalry was not enough, the build-up said it all. The gates of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad were opened as early as 10 am — most venues opened at 12 noon — for a 2 pm start.
The sea of blue that was always anticipated was there even before that. The visual from the drones, giving a bird’s eye view, looked like a colony of blue ants moving in sync towards their habitat -- here the habitat is orange and blue stands of the colosseum named after the Prime Minister of the country.
They had a concert on their cards with top artists set to perform an hour before the toss and they did not want to miss that. The concert and ceremony were not there for the opening game, but were planned for this particular clash as it could very well set the 2023 ICC Men’s World Cup alive. The official broadcaster announced that the concert was only for the stadium audience. With the stadium fast-filling, Shankar Mahadevan, Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan and Arijit Singh went about their business in front of a reasonable crowd.
When it got closer to the toss, the atmosphere was buzzing. Something Pakistan superfan Mohammad Bashir was keen to experience. He had received a lot of love in Hyderabad and was looking forward to the same. In this stadium on Saturday, he was representing a small section, possibly a handful of them, in the stands. Even if you put the stands under a microscope, it would have been hard to find a Pakistan flag in the crowd — there were two on the boundary that ICC volunteers waved based on how the match was going. The reason — they didn’t get visas to travel.
As for the reception, unlike Hyderabad, it was predominantly blue. Pakistan captain Babar Azam was booed when he walked out to speak with Ravi Shastri at toss. There were sections of the crowd that booed even after the Pakistan national anthem was played. When the play began, the DJ at the venue took it further playing ‘Jai Shree Ram’ from Adipurush — a song about a Hindu religious god — with close to a lakh fans cheering on.
When Mohammed Siraj and Hardik Pandya broke partnerships, the crowd brought down the roof with their noise. However, it also meant that when they do well, the stadium goes to a pin drop silence. Not acknowledgement. Nor an applause. Just silence. As Babar and Rizwan strolled through after the first couple of wickets it seemed that the contest was happening in a rather empty ground. It was only when Siraj cleaned up Azam, that the crowd came alive. In a way, it summed up the nature of the partisan crowd at the venue. It only doubled down as Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets in the same over to reduce Pakistan to 166/5 after 33 overs. In the end, the Pakistan team collapsed and managed to put up 191 on the board.
Billed as the match that is going to set the tournament alive from day one, the crowd and India have made sure the atmosphere was electric, but only when things are going India’s way. How the game goes, could likely have an impact in the coming games as well.