First experience at Chinnaswamy Stadium

My first tryst with watching a cricket match live from a stadium occurred long time back in Chennai. It's been more than six years since I shifted to Bangalore but never got a chance to experience live cricket from Chinnaswamy stadium. This indeed came true last Sunday on the fourth day of India v/s Australia test match. With tickets being booked online, all we had to do was reach the stadium on time. I was expecting a huge crowd on a Sunday morning but people started thronging the stadium only after 11 AM. As I entered the stadium, I realized that this is the last series for Ganguly. Although I am not a big fan of him, I felt a little sad because Sachin's last series may not be that far. My childhood hero (he still is!!) has started to play lesser number of matches due to injury concerns.

When the players were busy with their net practice, we settled for good seats in our stand. After a while, the stadium started to erupt in loud cheer. While I was wondering what the fuss is all about, the two umpires were walking down the pavilion. I guess only in India the umpires get such a warm welcome! The innings progressed slowly with occasional fours from Zaheer. It was rather a slow day compared to my previous experience in the Chennai test match. We expected India to wrap up second innings of Aussies by the end of fourth day but to our disappointment, Australia stuck there and ensured India didn't get an upper hand. At one point, the innings went too slow that we started to play UNO cards. The occasional Mexican wave and the few wickets gave us a chance to cheer and shout from the top of our voices.

It's been a long time since I followed a cricket match the whole day. During college, I didn't mind sitting in front of the TV and watching cricket for eight hours. Those days, I used to watch the county matches when no other international matches were scheduled. My interest levels have dipped in the past two years but these one-off experiences seem to revive my interest.