If this is Day One, if this is cricket, just bring it on

If this is the cricket we have been yearning for, but did not know how to demand, bring it on. Let the 35 days ahead gently unfold. Sorry, change that. Let them leap, let them descend, take our breaths away, make our hearts stop.

As it happened this March day, when the two teams kept their tryst in a nascent peace initiative by digging deep and registering a recordmaking performance. A difference of five runs in a 100-over span that saw 693 runs being hit seems paltry. It certainly marked out India as worthy victors. Yet in the ebb and flow of all those runs, in the first and last overs in which the match was effectively decided, a tryst was kept.

In the generous and sporting reception by the crowd, Indo-Pak cricket — always a brittle commodity — was given a chance. Cricket’s embrace, today, was magnanimous enough to enfold the enormity of the occasion as well as hopes for the process. There will be days when you, both cricket lovers and part-time dilettantes, will query of each other, where were you on March 13? There will be times when you will find yourselves waving away mists of disbelief to relive one of cricket’s greatest hours. Then you’ll remember this day. Here’s the view from the stadium.

The Karachi crowd takes its cricket extremely seriously, and as expected it was fulsome in its welcome to the home squad this morning. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, however, would be forgiven for wondering if their armoured convoy had deposited them on a domestic field. The roar that greeted their walk to the middle was deafening. Tendulkar especially must have thrilled in the roar that greeted every boundary, every cover drive. Memories of that 1989 fixture in this city when a minor riot broke out after Pakistan had been reduced to 27-3 and of the curtailed 1997 ODI on account of stone-pelting must have been banished for ever.

Today every shot from the Indian bat was cheered, every dive in the field lauded. Men held the two flags together, the women celebrated every skier with appreciative abandon. Shoaib Akhtar will often return to the Karachi scorecard, in his seven wides and three no-balls he will spy the six runs Pakistan sought in vain. But in the moment, he congratulated Rahul Dravid for a well-made 99 as he made his way back to the shed. And Dravid on that lonely walk back must have found comfort in the sympathetic stillness in the audience.

At match’s end, it finished with cricketer and crowd exchanging standing ovations. It was a rare thing, and Imran Khan recognised it as such: “The atmosphere was awesome and the crowd was fair. For once I saw an Indo-Pak match when the home team was not petrified of losing.’’ Other cricketers on non-playing duty were called upon for more valiant responses. Shahid Afridi leapt to rescue the Indian team from fans and photographers, pleading, ‘‘Unko jaane toh do.’’

Back then it was to the high-security drill of departure, but this time with a visibly relaxed Yashovardhan Azad professing full satisfaction in the 5000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed at the National Stadium.

A few days ago Karachi girl Kamila Shamsie told The Sunday Express that she was determined to find a seat at the National Stadium on Saturday. In her hip and edgy novel on the city, Cartography, strangers are separated into good and bad on the basis of their resemblance to certain cricketers.

Today as she surveyed the crowd and the players, she must have discerned reason to hope for Karachi and for cricket.