My first LIVE cricket match

As the title suggests yesterday I watched my first Live match, 'Live' in the real sense :-) It was the first match of the India-South Africa series and the venue was the 'Rajiv Gandhi Stadium' at Uppal in Hyderabad. It was pretty tiring and that too for a person like me who detests cricket[The sole cause for this is my brother who never used to switch channels when a cricket match was on :-(] it was truly a difficult experience.
It was a team outing and we started from our places at 6 in the morning [Its still a surprise to me as to how I made it]. Our Qualis was the first of the three to reach the stadium at nearly 7.30. As we neared the stadium, the traffic bloated and the Qualis was nearly crawling its way through it. We got down a little ahead of the stadium and started walking towards the stadium. Just then, the bus with the Indian cricket team passed by. It was the sight of a lifetime!!! Sachin was sitting in the front row calmness writ on his face. Beside him was Greg Chapel and two seats behind him was Harbhajan. We were surprised and also overjoyed.[Whatever you say, you forget for an instant that they too are ordianry indviduals like you :-)]. We waved vehemently to Sachin and he responded with a small gesture of lifting his hand.
We then proceeded towards Gate 5 and just as we were about to enter the stadium our attention was caught by a lady's voice - "We are from NDTV. Can you pose for a shot". Apparently,she was enthused seeing 20 of us in yellow shirts and black blazers who would make good and bright background for her news :-) We posed for the camera as she started off saying "Lagthaa hai kee saaraa hyderabad yahaan hai...". Believe me there were not more than 100 people around at that time. And then she handed over the mike to some people who were also posing for the camera and they started off -"Hum India ko jithayenge...aur phir hee chalenge...". I was smiling to myself hoping how these people were going to make India win when the 11-some were determinant in losing the match :-)
We entered the stadium and occupied some seats on the first floor. The stadium was still only half constructed and put up a sorry sight. It was too dirty and with cement and sand suspended in the air it was dusty too. After sitting for a while we began to realise that it was not going to that easy a job. The sun was shining brightly at its best and soon it was becoming difficult to sit. The players came to the ground for their warm up. We started preparing some of our banners. The one I liked best was "Team India - Your potential, our passion - Microsoft". P thought for a lot of time for a good slogan and came up with "We love Sachin". I couldn't control my laughter at the inventiveness ;-). At 9 sharply the match started, and much to our relief India was batting first.
It was fun for sometime but when the batsmen started leaving the ground as soon as they came in it started becoming a bit boring. After sometime it was impossible to sit in the sun and I came out to stand in the shade. It was too inviting that I didnt feel like going back again. The game was going on at a really slow pace. We went around to see if we could get some coffee when we discovered a really good place in the Ground floor. It was shady and the view was really good. In the final overs of Indian innings, the game became interesting. Harbhajan's unexpected yet awesome sixers were great. We moved to the front though it was sunny because we knew this spell wouldn't anyway last for long ;-)
Once the cricketers dispersed for lunch, we realised that we were also hungry. I had munched almost 3-4 packets of chips but still gelt hungry :-( I got some biriyani from the stadium. Nobody would believe that it was biriyani that toO Hyderabadi biriyani.Leave alone spice it didnt even have salt. I had to get a packet of 'KurKure' to complement it. And I got some appreciations for the great combination...even planning to patent it :-)
The south africans started their batting and the game returned to its slow pace again. We went in front in the hope of seeing something interesting. I and Pu went in front and started shouting Dhoni's name. At a particular point he almost turned to see who it was but then resited himself. It was fun As the game started to progress in favour of South Africa, the audience started taunting the Indians. This was the most irritating part of all. People praise their favourite and shout their names when they play well and if India starts losing they turn hostile. Gautam Ghambir was the unlucky one standing near our edge of the boundary and he too received many taunts. The mexican wave formed by the audience deserves special mention. It was very co-ordinated and looked awesome!!
Finally the match ended and we returned back home. I was so tired that I feel asleep as soon as my head hit the bed. However tiring it was, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.