Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Daredevils : The Stadium Effect

May 3, 2008 at 11:35 pm | In Cricket, Random Thoughts |
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It has been quite a while since Amit has seen a cricket match from the “toss” to the “man of the match”. IPL tried to reinstate the dying flame of his interests and has been moderately successful. So, when the prospect of watching a live match in a stadium presented itself, he was as dauntless as a newborn peeing on his father’s pants.

And so it was settled. He was to witness the Indian Premier League(IPL) match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils to be battled at Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on 2 May 2008. The tickets were promptly bought well in advance and he marched into the stadium with his friends on the appointed day. This was the first time Amit was about to witness a match in the Stadium.

Nothing could have prepared him for the euphoria he witnessed there. The stadium was chok-a-block with fans waiting for the stars of the show to appear. Indian flags(?!?), colourful posters, fluttering fans/tickets and a wave of over excited crowd were the first visual imbroglio available. The only calm thing in the whole stadium was the pitch, as if preparing itself to be stomped. As Dhoni, Captain of the Chennai Super Kings, won the toss and chose to bat, the excitement of the crowd reached another crescendo. Amit had never heard such blood curling screams before but he was gulping in all the excitement and was as excited as everyone else, but in a much more subdued way.

As the CSK started to bat, Stephen Flemming was lost too soon and Parthiv Patel followed him in a jiffy. Vidyut and Dhoni somehow tried to steady the score and CSK ended their innings with 169/6 in 20 overs. As if the score was not depressing enough, as soon as the Delhi Daredevils started their innings, Sehwag went completely out of control. By the time Sehwag got out at 71, the damage was already done. Still, till the end the CSKs were treading a very thin line and there was a ray of hope for them as long as they were not allowing the Daredevils to take 4s and 6s. It was a very close call and Amit was biting his nails. But the final damage was done in the second last over and the Delhi Daredevils won by 8 wickets with 6 balls remaining. The crowd was not much sad and they cheered Sehwag as much as Dhoni. And yes, the histrionics of Billy Bowden were definitely not worth a miss.





Some points which Amit noticed :

  • Watching a cricket match in a Stadium is entirely different from watching it on television. If the weather is good, going to a stadium is a very good option. Of course, there won’t be those colourful analysis/graphics screens showing the ball positions and the shots, but then what the heck!!!
  • The Cheerleaders were fully( :( ) covered in yellow outfits and still people were gloating over them.
  • There was a huge net in front of the seats and Amit was not able to understand its necessity. It was only after the match ended and people started throwing water bottles towards the ground, that the purpose of the net came to light.
  • The cricket stadium is not as big as it appears in the television. In fact its quite small and even if you are sitting at the last row, you can very easily follow the ball.
  • Watching all those cricketers in 3D, whom you are so much used to watch in 2D can be quite a dizzying experience. Your mind might refuse to believe that they are actually there. Its like watching your favourite actor standing in front of you. You will definitely pinch yourself.
  • The experience can surely be repeated in a better weather condition and with a more expensive ticket.
  • Amit had lost another point in the PFHOI contest being hosted on Ish’s Dead End. :(
  • Amit has written a post on cricket. He could not have imagined this in his wildest fantasies. ;)

Thats it for the day, ladeej and genteelmen.

(The photographs have been taken by me by my Moto rokr Z6 and are not to be used for any commercial purpose)

21 Comments »

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  1. Ye IPL(Indian Premier League) main ILP(Initial Learning Programme) kahan se aa gaya Amit? Anyhow whatever it maybe, the match was quite interesting and enjoyable.

    Comment by Atipriya — May 4, 2008 #

  2. I have never seen a cricket match in a stadium either and am dying to see it! I have heard of the electric atmosphere. In fact the foreign players say that for them too the Indian crowds are very thrilling. We make so much noise! I hope I can get to see one soon…

    Comment by Nita — May 4, 2008 #

  3. Even though I’ve played cricket in a cricket stadium the only cricket match that I watched live in a stadium was some Ranji Trophy test match back when I was a kid. So you can imagine, about two hundred people in a stadium with capacity of forty thousand.

    As far as IPL is concerned, its just a passing fad. Some cricket pakistan even compared it with a three hour bollywood movie. Not now but slowly IPL matches will be very much like bollywood movies. Very hard to watch.

    Comment by Anand — May 4, 2008 #

  4. @Atipriya : Wo maine pehle hi theek kar liya tha, aapka comment aane se pehle. :P Haan mazza to aaya tha, par a.c. nahi tha. ;)

    @Nita : Oh yes. You must. Its a very different experience. Everyone is shouting on the top of their lungs. And what I found quite surprising that there was no tension at all. Everyone was enjoying the watch even when Chennai Super Kings were loosing. :)

    @Anand : Yes its quite exciting and by what I have seen, it does not look like a passing fad.
    And leave aside playing in a stadium, I had never seen one in my life. So I was quite excited. Now I can understand what kind of a pressure the players endure.

    Comment by Amit — May 4, 2008 #

  5. Man, mera bhi bada mood tha koi match dekhne ka par plan hi nahi ban paa raha. Ab shayad 8th ko cousins ke saath Daredevils vs Knight Riders dekhoon Delhi mein. Par kam hi chance lag raha hai.

    And naya avatar mast hai. Mast chikne lag rahe ho. And glares ka toh kya kahoon. :P

    Comment by ish — May 4, 2008 #

  6. You may like to know this post is on WP home page :-)

    Comment by Shefaly — May 5, 2008 #

  7. @amit
    i agree with ish…luking quite sexy ha amit :mrgreen: kya baat hai???? kahin yeh pyaar ka asar toh nahi? ;-) neways even i wanna c d match 8 some stadium yaar…bt wankhade and DY patil dono bahut door hai :cry: n mumbai was loosing matches continuosly bt nw they r winning touchwood!!! :mrgreen: so might has well give it a try!!!! :lol: i wanna c sachin closely… :lol: and drool at dhoni although he’s near d wicket bt my drool power is strong enough to reach d wicket 4m d stands.. :mrgreen:

    Comment by riddhima — May 5, 2008 #

  8. @Ish : Agar 8th ko dekhna hai, to tickets bhi to book karwani padegi??? And thanks for the avtaar comment. Photoshop se bahut kuch ho jata hai. :P :lol:

    @Shefaly : Is it?? Thats great. Thanks for telling. :)

    @Riddhima : Pyar?? Ladki bhi to honi chahiye!!! :( And I don’t think you will be able to see anyone closely. Sab bahut door hote hain, but still you can make out. But that screen is always there. :) Have you seen a match before in stadium??

    Comment by Amit — May 5, 2008 #

  9. arre wah finally u watched the match in a stadium… i hope that ki tune finally atleast cheersleadrs ko to enjoy kiya hoga .. if not the game .. hehehe :-)

    Comment by Rajneesh — May 5, 2008 #

  10. mere hisab se to tere ko KKR ka match dekhna chahiye tha .. teri fav team ( obviusly due to shahrukh )

    Comment by Rajneesh — May 5, 2008 #

  11. Delhi DareDevils team really looks very well balanced. Sehwag is really turning out to be a great captain. I really admire him for the way he handles the pressure. It was Gautam’s 86 runs and Mcgrath’s 4 wickets haul which helped The Devils to win the match. I hope they continue their great form. Btw Delhi DareDevils also have their own official blog where you can get all exclusive content about the team and their players. http://www.delhidaredevils.com/blog/

    Comment by Ashi — May 5, 2008 #

  12. Came here to tell you, settle on an Avatar already! We know you are Veerappan anyway. :P

    Comment by Ashish — May 5, 2008 #

  13. Tickets toh booked hain yaar. Mere cousin ke paas passes hain match ke and he asked me if I wanna come or not. Thing is ke he has a meeting in Mumbai the next day toh pata nahi woh jaa payega ya nahi. And mere liye bhi asaan kaam nahi hai aise hi uthke delhi chale jaana. Let’s see kya hota hai.

    Comment by ish — May 5, 2008 #

  14. @Rajneesh : Maine match bhi enjoy kiya aur cheerleaders ko bhi. It was a good experience. Winters main I would definitely want to go again. Aur when we bought the tickets, I had no idea about kaunsi team kiski hai. So there. :|

    @Ashi : Thanks a lot. Yes they did played well that day considering the fact that Chennai had never lost a match before. And thanks for the link. :)

    @Ashish : WTH!!! I am experimenting with my avataar my Lord. Can’t I do that? And Veerappan? Excuse me? Kings are not supposed to make fun of the aam janta. :(
    p.s. : I am changing the avataar again. :P

    @Ish : Ok…hmmm. Lets hope you see it. :D

    Comment by Amit — May 5, 2008 #

  15. @amit
    nahi yaar.. :cry: i wanna c it :cry: i wanna c dhoni ko thode paas se :mrgreen:

    Comment by riddhima — May 5, 2008 #

  16. @amit
    You don’t think that something is a passing fad at its peak ;)

    Comment by Anand — May 5, 2008 #

  17. @Riddhima : Accha sahi hai phir to, you can jump in the ground and do that Cadbury wala add. Then he might come and hug you too. :mrgreen:

    @Anand : Hmmmm. Guess you are right. :|

    Comment by Amit — May 6, 2008 #

  18. @amit
    arrey haan…y didnt i think of it b4???? :mrgreen: bt yaar the chances of dhoni coming n hugging me r less n d probability of d security coming n pulling me away is more nt 2 mention my parents nt taking me inside d house 4 embarassing them publicly :cry:

    Comment by riddhima — May 7, 2008 #

  19. Moto rokr Z6 !!! I use the same phone !.

    (I am bad at commenting about cricket. much worse than my posts on IPL). :D

    Comment by xylene — May 7, 2008 #

  20. arre …mere bina cricket par discussion..damn this engineering.. :angry:
    anyways ,kal last exam hai.. then after enjoying upto 10 or 11 i will back to my usual jobless status till my joiing…
    tab i will be free for all these discussions..

    aur yaar,…yeh chennia ko kya ho gya…

    Comment by arvind — May 7, 2008 #

  21. @Riddhima : Arre your parents will be really happy. They will come on TV. And then I am very sure Aaj tak team will come and interview them. They will put captions like - Riddhima bani Rakhi. :mrgreen: Field main Riddhima ka Nritya!!! :lol:
    @Xylene : I am bad at doing everything related to cricket. :| And finally I found someone who uses this phone. :)
    @Arvind : Chalo finally you entered the discussion. Aaj phir jeet gai Chennai. Be happy. :) Exams over?

    Comment by Amit — May 8, 2008 #

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