Indore: For Indoreans it was a treat they had been waiting for – a live cricket match starring the Men in Blue. Much like other big cricketing venues like Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai, the historic Holkar Stadium in the city was jam-packed with cricket lovers.
The fans were not only the locals, but had reached here from other parts of the state and country to the venue that has been a happy hunting ground for the Indian team, which has won all the previous encounters here.
Ecstatic fans started gathering outside the stadium at 4 pm, a good three hours before first ball was to be bowled. Security was tight with cops present at every nook and corner in and around the stadium.
"I have come here to watch Kohli, I am his biggest fan," said city’s Pooja Sharma, 24, a die-heart fan of run machine Virat Kohli. Pooja who came to match along with one of her relatives is suffering from Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) (or brittle bone disease) said she always loves to watch Kohli’s batting as it’s a real treat to the eye watching him slamming opposition bowlers all-round the park.
Ram Babu, a middle aged man, is a Dhoni’s fan who came to Indore all the way from Chandigarh. He says he never missed even a single match featuring Team India in the past 15 years, and will try to maintain this record in future as well. Babu came to Holkar Stadium bare-bodied with the Indian tricolor and Dhoni’s name painted all over. Babu who first met Dhoni in 2010 during India – England series said, “For me, Dhoni is equal to the Almighty”
A group of 11 cricketing buffs from Ratlam who came to Indore to cheer Team India said they loved to witness high voltage excitement that was only possible in a stadium.
Being a fan of Rohit (Sharma) and skipper Virat, the group from Ratlam said like other Indians they too loved to see Team India’s batting, but of late the performance of Indian bowling, led by some superb pacers like Jaspreet (Bumra) and Company, has been so great that soon people will be cheering Indian bowling too.
An international cricket match at an Indian stadium cannot be imagined without flying tricolours, placards of fours and sixes and painted faces on the stands. From early in the morning hundreds of hawkers with selling cricket merchandise and were doing brisk business.
From Indraprastha Square to Janjeera Square and from Starlit Talkies to Bal Vinay Mandir School, numerous vendors were selling tricolours, colourful wigs, stickers among other things.
