The cricket-crazy lot at the MA Chidambaram Stadium waited for three years and nine months for a Test match. Result-wise, they couldn’t have asked for better as India romped to a dramatic innings-and-45-run win in a tense final session and won the series 4-0.
Karun Nair scored a monumental unbeaten 303 and India registered their highest Test score when they got to 759/7. Of course, there was also the small matter of Ravindra Jadeja running through the dithering England batsmen in the second innings en route to his career-best 7/48.
In the midst of all this, they had time to cheer for their opponents too: A characteristic that is deep-rooted in the average Chennai cricket fan’s psyche. This is the same crowd, after all, who treated Saeed Anwar’s jaw-dropping 194 in a One-Day International to a standing ovation. In a day and age where hollow, imprudent nationalism seems to be be the mantra for a section of the country’s population, Chennai stood up to applaud Pakistan after they had beaten India narrowly in a Test match in 1999.
The manner in which a packed crowd threw rivalry out of the window, especially with the bloody war of Kargil forming the backdrop to the game, captured the attention of the world. One could watch the visuals of the match with John Lennon’s Imagine playing in the background, and there’s little doubt that the hit single won’t look out of place.
The Chennai crowd yet again played perfect hosts in the recently concluded India-England Test. They cheered big-hitting England batsman Jos Buttler, who was fielding at the boundary, with as much fervour and gusto as they would have local boys Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay.
The crowd is heard chanting “Buttler, Buttler”. There was a loud chorus of “We want Buttler”, whenever he was moved into the circle by Alastair Cook. The Somerset batsman, at one point, is seen glaring at the crowd quizzically to see what the fuss was all about. Perhaps, it was an afterthought to deduce whether the chants were laced with derision, given that England were sent on a leather hunt. For anyone who has spent an afternoon in the Chepauk gallery would know that fans meant anything but that.
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