A Wonderfull Experience Of Watching IPL @ Chinnaswamy Stadium

Saturday (10/04/2010), A big night for both the team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and KolKata Knight Riders (KKR), Myself with 5 of my friends Praveen, Santhosh, Ravi, Sumanas and Preetham had booked tickets for this fascinating match. Initially we had booked tickets for RCB vs Delhi Daredevils (DD) on March 27th due to BBMP we had to replan things with big disappointment. We then planned to RCB vs Mumbai Indians (MI), thinking we may get a chance to watch Sachin Tendulkar (GOD OF CRICKET) but even this plan of us went in vain, since the stadium was houseful long back. With not much of choice left we booked ticket for RCB vs KKR thank god we got at least gallery seat.

Never in our dreams had we thought this would be a decisive match for both teams to qualify for semi final, thanks to Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings after a poor start both the team roared back with some great wins which completely opened up the tournament.

We decided to leave early so that we could beat the traffic and get early to stadium so that we could get a best possible view of the entire ground. All of us were fully geared up with posters and flags to cheer RCB and left home @ 4.30PM, informing Sumanas to meet us at Domalur Bus Stop and Preetham at stadium parking lot. As usual namma Sumanas arrived half an hour late and we reached the stadium at around 6 PM, found that Preetham had not at arrived and to frustrate us more he was not even answering our call. All of us were so much pissed off and finally he arrived 15 mins late and we entered the stadium @ 6.30 PM sharp.

After all the security checks and formalities we entered our stand Bagpiper Special View Stand. As soon as we arrived everyone of us were mesmerized with the buzz in the entire stadium (since it was our first experience) which was getting filled up at a rapid pace, DJ inside had created an electrifying atmosphere. With fans cheering for their favorite teams but since it was a home match for RCB, I could only see red flags being waved in the entire stadium. In another 10 mins max the entire Chinnaswamy Stadium got packed up with majority of RCB fans and KKR fans with fewer numbers.

The view from our stand was great , we got to see the entire ground with no obstruction in our view except the net which was pulled down for safety of the players. Very near to our stand we had KKR player getting themselves warming up, when fans got to see DADA (Ganguly) even though he was not a player of RCB got a huge round of cheer. RCB players were practicing @ the other end. The stand we were sitting had more number of KKR fans compared to other stands.

At sharp 7.45 PM toss took place and when Jumbo (Anil Kumble ) won the toss, my god the entire stadium was on high with cheers and red flags waving @ greater velocity. But every1 were a bit disappointed when Jumbo elected to field first, anyways match started @ sharp 8 PM.
KKR started of to a flyer with Chris Gayle literally murdering Praveen Kumar by blasting him all around the park, from the other end Steyn fuming in with all cylinders blasting with his natural fast bowling. KKR fans were at their peak, dancing and screaming with we all RCB fans watching them with dull faces. They had not much to cheer before Rahul Dravid took a good catch at covers giving marching orders to Gayle, but this not halted KKR from firing. DADA started to play his usual knock before Jumbo took a Karboon Kamal catch @ short square leg. It was DADA's wicket which changed the entire course of the match with wickets falling @ regular interval. McCullum showed some of his resilience but not for a longer time and with the start KKR got all RCB fans were expecting a target of 200 or more but they felt 40 short of it. Kumble spell of 4 over 17 runs was outstanding and Vinay Kumar's wicket taking spell changed the tie towards RCB. RCB fans were on high, the way we were all dancing and screaming looked as if every one of RCB fans had a KF strong. I would say it was great come back from Jumbo and his team to restrict KKR for a reasonable 160 runs and which was quite achievable.

Ten minutes of break for every one of us to get our battery recharged before the second session started, in order to beat the heat every one of us had a cold chocolate drink. I would like to say the facilities provided for fans was really good and worth appreciating.

It was a typical RCB start very hard to get runs initially, DADA put down a sitter of Kallis in the very first over but he did not cost them much. He was caught at slip by Gayle, an important match in which he had to deliver his best but failed. All dancing and screaming RCB fans came to a still and it was KKR fans turn now to celebrate. Dravid got a huge around of reception, finally RCB scored their first boundary courtesy of Sriram thank god finally he connected one and gave all of us to cheer for something. Thanks to THE WALL (Dravid) to bring the atmosphere inside the stadium to its full strength with his blistering drives, cuts and pulls. RCB fans had still more to rejoice when Dinda cleaned up Sriram. I feel KKR made a big mistake by removing him because Sriram's departure resulted in the arrival of Hurricane in the form of Robin Uthappa.

It was still Dravid in the limelight with 2 amazing sixes for Agarkar but he did not last much longer untill he was decieved by a slower one by Matthews. It was fantastic knock by Dravid 52 of 35 deliveries who set the platform for the coming payers to finish the game in style. It was, I don’t know with what metaphors and adjectives to use to him, I can say he is a Volcano (Ross Taylor) and the DJ started to scream Ross... Ross and the crowd joined him to cheer him. But it was not Taylor who started to bombard things @ Chinnaswamy stadium, it was Robin who is in the form of his life I can say, his six over midwicket to Matthews gave raise to Mexican Waves across the entire stadium. Seeing that I can just say.. Wooowwww.. It was the starting of the end of KKR's.

Robin just started to cut loose things by blasting everyone to all over the park, Ishant and Mendis were his keen victims. Ishant was hammered for 24 runs with 2 outstanding sixes.
Taylor joined the party with his booming sweep six over square leg to Mendis and latter followed by two switch hits by Uthappa to six just to show how high on confidence he is and it was just a icing on the cake. It was finally Taylor who ended the proceedings with booming pull over midwicket for a four and all fans jumping and screaming . I am just short of words to explain the celebration of the fans. I would say it was complete paisa vasool for RCB fan, I was happy to see dejected and disappointed KKR fans. Thank God my first experience of watching cricket match ended up in sweet note with RCB winning, the team I supported.

I totally forgot to mention about cheer leaders, I really don't know how come. Every cheer leaders were pretty, but I felt pitty for them since they had to dance for Kannada Songs and sometime to Hindi Songs, they were just dancing for the sake of dancing but did not have any kind of Jossh, I wonder they understood even a word from the song for which they were daning, anyways that did not matter since we were all in great Jossh ;).

All together it was a great experience and fun, I am saying this coz RCB won, if I was a fan of KKR my words would have been different, anyways that’s the nature of every common man and even I am one among them. A great night to remember and rejoice, Hope so RCB makes it to their second consecutive finals this season and end up winning 3 rd edition of IPL.