Bengaluru: In the do-or-die World Cup match between Pakistan and New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday, the evening rain took the honours of deciding the result.
The fans, however, were not surprised. “It is a typical Bengaluru thing,” said a New Zealand supporter after the match.
Another fan said, “I checked the forecast just before the match. It said light rain. I was convinced that it would play spoilsport.”
Amongst the Sombre Kiwis fans were Pakistani supporters, who stepped out of the stadium all euphoric that their team retained the chances of qualifying for the semifinal.
Javed Khan, a supporter of the men in green, said that it all started with raining sixes and ended in actual rain.
“Any cricket fan would love to witness such a match. It started with Rachin whacking the bowlers to the crowd and then Fakhar followed him. Only if the actual rain didn’t didn’t intercept, no doubt there would have been more rain of sixes,” he said.
The Rachin show
A 55-year-old ardent cricket fan from Malleswaram said he bought tickets only to watch Rachin play.
“I have been following cricket for decades now. Rachin resembles my good old friend who used to play for our college team. I wanted to watch him play, just for that reason. He didn’t disappoint,” he said.
Karna Pujar, a techie, said that he became a fan of Rachin when he scored his first century in the World Cup. “I didn’t know he had Bengaluru roots. When I watched him on TV answering questions asked in Kannada, my admiration doubled,” he said, adding that there is a whole clan of fans among his circle of friends which sprung up after they learned that Rachin understands Kannada.
Packed surrounding, littered pavements
Compared to the previous two fixtures at the venue, the crowd numbers shot up substantially on Saturday. A huge number of fans were seen entering the stadium even an hour after the match started.
Due to the increased number of fans and evening spells of showers, the roads around the stadium witnessed slow-moving traffic after the match ended.
What didn’t change from the previous fixtures was the pile of litter drowning the pavements along the stadium. The pavements were strewn with plastic covers of fan jerseys.