rcb! rcb!

Today was rcb's last home game for this year's ipl season, and Prakash managed to score tickets from a friend of his.  This was the match I had wanted to attend all season, as it was not only a Sunday afternoon match, but it was also against the Chennai Super Kings, which is the team my Dhoni-boy captains.  So it was a win-win situation for me.

We went to the Reebok store yesterday to pick up a jersey for me.  And today, with both of us decked out in our red, we grabbed some lunch and headed to the stadium.  Our tickets were for the "student stand", so we assumed we'd be up in the nosebleeds.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise when we entered the stadium at field level.  In Chinnaswamy Stadium, there are no assigned seats; instead, there are lots of blue plastic chairs in each section on which people can sit.  Of course, being India, there are not enough chairs in each section for the number of tickets they sell, but we weren't interested in sitting down, so we picked a spot near the edge of our section and stayed over there.

And then the match started.

Both Chennai and Bangalore are pretty well-balanced teams, so when we got four of their guys out for 22 runs in the first 6 overs, Prakash and I were both thinking it was going to be a blowout.  We forgot that Dhoni never lets his boys get blown out.  He clawed and fought his way through their innings and managed to get them to a semi-respectable, but never really defendable, 128 by the end of their 20 overs.

I think everyone was kind of expecting it all to get over quickly when Bangalore came out to bat, but that faded fast when AB got out on the second ball of our innings.  Luckily Chris Gayle was in his general jovial mood and was ready to knock the ball all over the place.  He and Kohli-boy put on a good show for us, and Prakash and I both went a bit hoarse chanting rcb! rcb! and chris gayle! chris gayle! over and over.  Finally it was Gayle and Saurabh Tiwary who saw us home with 2 overs left, and there were cheers and fireworks all around.  What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I have always loved attending sporting events, but when you're in India, your only chance is to catch a cricket match.  I've been lucky that in the 3 and a half years I've been here, I have gotten to attend 2 Test matches, a one-day match [a World Cup match, no less], and 3 T20 matches [2 ipl and 1 champions league], which I'd say is pretty respectable.  It definitely doesn't compare to a college football game in the States, but it has its own quirks.  The only downside?  No hot dogs.  And that's not something I am likely to ever get over.

So now my rcb boys finish the season in first place and will play the winner of tonight's mumbai/kolkata match [kolkata, from the looks of things] on Tuesday night.  This is the third year in a row we have made the playoffs, and you know what they say about third chances and charms.  Maybe, just maybe, this is our year.
xx

[image via freezonal]