Sachin craze speaks louder at Uppal
HYDERABAD: It was another enthusiastic day for the Hyderabadis at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium on Monday. For those who put money on the India-Australia cricket match, not a penny went waste.
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar might not have given them what they wanted but they enjoyed every second of his on-field presence, be it during batting or bowling.
Though Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, who hit tons on Sunday, went on to add brisk 80-odd runs on the third day play, the crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium eagerly waited for the demigod of the game Sachin to come to the pitch.
No banners were allowed inside the stadium. Amid the 'Sachin Sachin' slogans that reverberated the stadium, only two banners were seen waving across the crowd, both praising the little master. They read ''Meaning of Sachin: In Latin - Precious, In Sanskrit - Pure, In India - God.'' .
The number of fans was lesser in the first session but it grew in latter part of the day.
Just half-an-hour before lunch, Murali Vijay departed but it brought the fans to their feet as Sachin walked into the stadium. Even Vijay's splendid batting was somehow fell short to match the aura of Sachin.
''Undoubtedly, Vijay and Pujara's innings are invaluable but we came to watch Sachin bat. Who knows whether he will play another Test match in Hyderabad or not?'' said Krishna Bharadwaj, an Intermediate student from Dilsukhnagar.
A group of Australian fans also welcomed Sachin's arrival with claps. Their excitement was more visible with little master arriving rather than their home team taking a wicket after toiling hard for almost a day. Sachin, however, let down the fans by falling to Pattinson's delivery minutes after lunch.
Each of the eight boundaries hit by Dhoni had the audience on their feet while Jadeja came up with the only six of the day. As the Indian lower order collapsed like nine pins, there was a little bit of disappointment among the audience but the comfortable position in which the home team was made them not rue.
'I bunked my school to have a glimpse of the Indian players batting more particularly Dhoni's helicopter shot,'' said Ajay and Prajay, students of a private school at Dilsukhnagar.
The fans, however, had their own complaints with the organisers. They were not allowed to take banners inside the stadium except the national flags. Waving the tri-colour they were at the top of their voice cheering every boundary till Indian innings ended after scoring a little over 500 runs.
The Aussie took the driver's seat in the seocnd innings till the wickets fell quickly and the fans went on cheering their favourite cricketers. Virat Kohli, Sachin, Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh too reciprocated waving to the crowds.
With the fall of two wickets in quick succession, the fans had a happy ending to their day. ''It was paisa vasool for me,'' quipped a fan, Radhika of LB Nagar.
Pen, paper, even cell phone banned
Cyberabad police seem to have went overboard in making arrangements for the match. With the Dilsukhnagar blasts still in memory, the police did not even allow banners, papers or even pens inside the stadium. Mobiles are a far cry.
'How can they not allow pens inside the stadium? What is the threat with a pen when they are frisking each and every person and their bags?'' questioned a woman.
No cheer banners, CM in all flexies
It was less of cricket banners or advertisement hoarding and more of giving publicity to the government schemes. With very few corporates buying space for ads, the remaining space was utilised to promote the various government welfare schemes. Flexies with Kiran Kumar Reddy in various poses were the most visible across the stands.
News Posted: 5 March, 2013
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