Gambhir hits an unbeaten ton — a ‘paisa vasool’ affair for Barodians

The atmosphere,however,soon changed after Zaheer Khan claimed his first victim on the second delivery of his first over.

For the next 15 overs,the spectators had enough reasons to stick to their seats as the pacers — Zaheer and Munaf and Yusuf Pathan — forced New Zealand players to struggle on the the pitch. The match was almost one-sided,when New Zealand’a James Franklin helped the Kiwis reach a modest 224.

“We thought the match would end before 3 pm and we would hardly see Indians batting as New Zealand team was struggling to even reach even 150 mark. But thanks to Franklin,at least it was not an easy win for India. In fact,I had called up some of my friends not to come for the match after New Zealand lost five wickets. But after they reached 224,I called them again and asked them to come,” said Jagdeep Sharma,a BSNL employee.

“We were not in a mood to come because Dhoni,Tendulkar and Bhajji were not playing. But Gambhir was awesome and I am glad that I bought the ticket in advance,” said Pravin Gupta,who works in a life insurance company.