IPL Diaries - 1

Well, with the league already into its third week ... I am a touch late in scripting my first post about IPL [lots of things going on ... don’t get much peaceful time to jot down stuff :( ] ... but it’s never tooo late ... is it? :) After missing out on witnessing the inaugural match of my home team Mumbai Indians against the Blore RCs at the Wankhede stadium; I managed to catch the second home match against the Deccan Chargers last night at the newly built D Y Patil stadium. The MI team lost again :( that too cheaply without putting up a fight :( ... [somehow in all the matches that I have seen live in the stadium, the team I support always end up losing the match :( ... next Sunday I m planning to go the stadium & support Delhi Daredevils :) ... ].

There’s nothing notable to mention about the match, as MIs surrendered meekly to the DCs .... except that the innings played by Adam Gilchrist was simply awe-inspiring ... [me still ruing the fact that none of the sixes he hit came our way ] Most of the MI supporters got a jolt before the start of the game itself; as the captain and icon player Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t playing [still recuperating from his ‘GOD knows when it will heal’ injury ... aarrggghhhh] and the vice captain Harbhajan Singh was serving a suspension following his on field aggression getting a bit too far .... so the team mgmt decided to give Pollock the reins of the team .... who did his best to marshal the unresourceful troops .... Actually, I can go on and analyze each and every MI player ... but it will just unnecessarily make this post longer [and blasphemous and profane and uglier].

And yea, the Cheerleaders were the only entertainment source for the MI supporters :) ... they danced very well to the tunes of Hindi songs .... The DC cheergals were performing just in front of our stand. Have quite a few snaps [not only of the cheerleaders, there are quite a few of the players too :)]; but have forgotten the data transfer cable for my digicam @ home ... so will not be able to upload the snaps before weekend .... Also, the typical Mumbaiyaa music with lezims and all was too good and had all of us in the stands dancing to its tune whenever twas played ......

“Hum honge kaamyaab, hum honge kaamyaab, hum honge kaamyaan ek din !!!!” :) this was the jingle sung by our stand by the end of the match ... :) the jingle got pretty loud and was heard by the MI team players in the dug-out [we were in the pavilion stand the one that’s close to the players dug out]... from where we got a couple of irate glances and also a coupla apologizing glances :)

Now, some bytes for the new stadium that hosted its very first match of international level [figuratively]. The stadium is very well constructed and organized and moreover the pitch & the ground were looking awesome too [boundaries were a touch short though] ... Overall an excellent job done by the makers. And now that the Wankhede stadium will close down after the IPL finals, for a makeover; I am sure that the D Y Patil stadium will make up for the same. Only shortcoming is that you got to travel about an hour and a half outside the city ... and yes the usual parking crisis ensues too :)

Lastly, I am sorry for this substandard, boring, highly disconnected, news article type post ... Actually, I had quite a bit to write about viz. the build up to the match; the extreme efforts taken for getting my hands on the tickets; the eventful journey to & fro the stadium; other interesting tidbits at the stadium ... but this is all that I could come up for now ... hopefully, such dreary posts won’t become a habit.

Cheerio,
Hiren