It has been more than 2 decades since I have been to a Stadium to watch a cricket
match live, the last time was during my School Days that too only once and I remember
it vaguely . So yesterday when I went to MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk, Chennai)
with my son to see the match it was pure fun. I didn't want to go through the parking
hassles so I left my car in a relatives house in Royappetah and went to the stadium
in an Autorickshaw - a wise decision that helped us to reach to our seats by start
of the match at 8PM. The atmosphere was dynamic with popular Tamil film songs playing
for every 6 runs, 4 runs and during breaks. The stadium was packed with people everywhere
- all were enjoying themselves, cheering the entertainment below by waiving, dancing,
playing music & whistling. We got good seats in Gate 13 (T-3) area which was right
in front of the pitch and with an excellent view.
The match was
played between the home team "Chennai
Super Kings" (owned by India Cements & captained by M.S.Dhoni) and "Mumbai
Indians" (owned by Reliance Industries and captained by Harbhajan Singh in
absence of Sachin Tendulkar). My home team "Chennai Super Kings" won
the match by 6 runs which was largely helped by the superb batting performance earlier
by the pair of ML
Hayden (Australia) and Suresh
Raina (UP, India). Captain Dhoni came in during last few overs but entertained
the crowd with his few hits to boundaries.
Everything was great during the match, except for the main scoreboard being updated
poorly and for the hot Chennai summer weather. After few overs of second innings it
was getting late and becoming unbearably hot, so we had our dinner in the MCC club
below and returned home to watch the remaining overs in the comfort of Air Conditioning
in our house :-) . Will I do it again, certainly "Yes" for another IPL/T-20
match but next time not during the summer.
Read the complete post at http://www.venkatarangan.com/blog/2008/04/24/Chennai+Super+Kings+Beats+Mumbai+Indians.aspx