By IANS
Bangalore : Crackers were burst, friends and total strangers hugged one another, and two-wheelers roared on almost deserted streets of Banglore as India pulled off a thrilling five-run victory against arch-rivals Pakistan at Johannesburg Monday evening to bring home the inaugural Twenty20 world cup.
The normally choking evening traffic was missing on Bangalore’s main roads as people stayed put in offices and homes to watch the titanic clash between the traditional sub-continent rivals.
Indian team’s batting at the dream final was not exactly a showstopper. The early exit of Robin Uthappa, the lone Karnataka representative in the team, off-colour Yuvraj Singh, and the fall of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni were huge disappointments for scores huddled inside bars and restaurants even as Gautam Gambhir kept the scoreboard moving steadily.
“Scoring rate was all right but the fireworks we expected from Yuvraj and Dhoni did not happen,” rued S Shylaja, an officer in a nationalized bank.
“We are hugely disappointed that Uthappa did not click,” said Vishwa K, a final year engineering student, who with several of his classmates bunked classes to watch the match on a TV screen in a restaurant.
“We had missed his superb play at the Oval early this month and thought he will repeat his performance in this match,” Vishwa said.
As inspired bowling by Rudra Pratap Singh, Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth brought India back into the match, there were boisterous scenes on the streets where TV companies put up huge TV screens at vantage points.
The crowds at restaurants, pubs and malls and on the roadside fell into deathly silence as Sreesanth was hit for huge sixes by the Pakistani batsmen, who seemed to be taking the match away from India.
Captain Dhoni’s decision to ask Joginder Sharma to bowl the last over only triggered animated discussion among the eager and excited match watchers.
But it was hurray all the way for Joginder and Team India as Misbah-ul-Haq went for a loose shot and gave an easy catch to Sreesanth off the third ball of the over to give Joginder his prized wicket.
The tempo and anticipation for the match was being built up throughout the day as TV news channels played on reports of the ‘dream final’.
A leading daily came out with tips on ways on how not to miss out on the excitement.
‘Call the office to say you are sick’, ‘Ask your organization to install a TV screen at the office’, ‘Go to a hotel or pub’, and in case none of these work ‘Listen to radio for the latest score’, were some of the tips the daily gave its readers.
“An India-Pakistan final in the inaugural edition of the slam-bang version of cricket is the best marketing strategy cricket administrators could have bet on to popularise the Twenty20,” said Vishwa.
Bangalore is in for another cricketing treat, in five days’ time, as India takes on Australia in One-Day International at Chinnaswamy stadium on Sep 29.