Of love, war and ‘revenge’

Rohit Mahajan

Mumbai, November 13

Among the tens of hundreds of walkers on the promenade at Marine Drive, a proverbial stone’s throw away from the Wankhede Stadium, not too many seem to be cricket aficionados, let alone those for whom cricket is a religion. They ignore the Wankhede completely, throwing neither stones nor flowers at it. They sit on the parapets, lovers gazing at the setting sun and the giant halo of gold its rays create in the Arabian Sea, their backs to the cricket ground.

Most of them seem unconcerned by the fact that Rahul Dravid — the Wall himself! — has just gone into the ground to have a look at the wicket. Of the New Zealanders, smiling destructors of reputations, the walkers and lovers on the promenade care nothing.

It’s just two days before the semifinal of the cricket World Cup, in the city that’s long been the heart of Indian cricket; yet, you wonder just how many of the thousands on the lanes around the stadium, or at the madly busy Churchgate city railway station or at the Marine Drive, really love cricket.

Inside the gates of the Wankhede, there’s a flurry of activity — the high and the mighty of the police and civil administration are present, overseeing plans for the next two days. The Mumbai Cricket Association members and office-bearers talk about collecting their match passes, hoping they’d get seats in their preferred stand and tier.

The Indian cricketers and support staff, after their victory over the Netherlands in Bengaluru yesterday, which took their record in the round-robin stage to 9-0, landed at the Mumbai airport in the afternoon, and were greeted by sundry fans shouting their names loudly.

Dravid, as is his wont, didn’t lose much time in visiting the venue where, 11 days ago, India crushed Sri Lanka by 302 runs. Dravid, accompanied by batting coach Vikram Rathour and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, had a long chat with the pitch curator.

The Wankhede pitch has been yielding big runs — South Africa made 399/7 and 382/5 the two times they batted first here during the World Cup, winning both games; India, of course, smashed 357/8 against Sri Lanka and won; Afghanistan made 291/5 against Australia and lost, courtesy the incredible 201 by Glenn Maxwell six days ago.

India had been excellent when they chased in the early part of the tournament; they have been phenomenal when they batted first, both with bat and ball. Regardless of his visit to the middle and the conversation with the curator, Dravid would advise Rohit Sharma to bat first if he won the toss here on Wednesday.

The New Zealanders trained under the lights in the evening. They made the semifinals after suffering a scare — losing four games in a row must have caused jitters in the camp, but they remain pleasant and friendly.

However, it seems, revenge is on the minds among the corps of Indian cricket writers. No fear of a vengeful India, though, haunts the New Zealanders, who had beaten India in the semifinals of the 2019 World Cup in Manchester.

Lockie Ferguson was part of the New Zealand team that beat India in the semifinals in 2019, in a match played over two days, July 9-10, due to rain.

He was asked if, despite being the ‘nice guys’ of cricket, they would be particularly targeted for revenge by the Indian team. “I think from you guys’ point of view, it is I guess… It’s your job to write stories like that,” Ferguson said.

He indicated that he had no clue about the mental state of the Indians. “From our point of view, I’m not sure I can comment on that. But yeah, four years ago was a pretty spectacular game. Playing that game was pretty incredible and very pleasing for us at the time. But four years have gone past, we’ve played a lot of cricket in between. Both teams, I’m sure, are raring to go come Wednesday,” he added.

And, no doubt, there would be enthusiasts to fill the 33,000 seats at the ground, perhaps some of them walkers and lovers on the Marine Drive.

62 KL Rahul slammed the quickest century by an Indian in a World Cup match, bettering Rohit Sharma (63 balls)

503 Rohit has scored the most runs in a World Cup (503) among Indian captains, going past Sourav Ganguly (465 in 2003)

7 Virat Kohli joined Sachin Tendulkar and Shakib Al Hasan in making the most 50-plus scores in a World Cup

208 Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul’s partnership of 208 was the best for India for fourth wicket or below in a World Cup. The previous best was between MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina (unbroken 196) against Zimbabwe in 2015