"Cricket Dekhne ka Maza sirf Stadium me hi aata hai"....
Apart from a news that spread about two low-intensity explosions outside the stadium which horrified some of the spectators, nothing was worth forgetting in the electrifying environment that the Mumbai Indians and Royal Challenger Bangalore match provided, in the chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore.
May it be the beautiful light lit environment or lush green outfield, the soaring sixes from Rayudu,Duminey & Pollard or the charismatic presence of Master with Orange cap and the cricketing legends Rahul,Anil,bhajji & Zaheer made the spectators forgot what happened before the match.
What made things even more exciting apart from it ,that it was a second league match for these two teams and RCB already had beaten MI in their own backyard, and this one was RCBs home ground ,surrounded by their thousands of supporters.Initially when I entered the stadium, I was searching for MI supporters to join them,and I found one group who had come all the way from Kolhapur,Maharashtra. Each jig of mine on a Rayudu’s six or a RCBs wicket earned me some mild stares but thankfully nothing more than that!
In the start,RCB won the toss and elected to field, Sachin surprised everyone by coming to open the innings with McLaren and MI were in some serious trouble after the initial overs as the master departed at 19 and some brilliant bowling from RCB ,but a counterattacking innings played by Rayudu(46 runs of 27 balls, 4 sixes 3 fours) gave the momentum to MI and later Duminy along with McLaren accelerated in style to reach a strong total of 191 for 4.
RCB never seems to be in the chase as they intermittently loosed their wickets disappointing all their fans which turned in huge numbers to cheer for them.
And ultimately MI won with 57 runs!
I will cherish this memory for lifetime not because MI won but because I saw Master playing!
http://picasaweb.google.com/balwantkb/MumbaiIndiansVsRCB#
