A few hours before the final match of the India-Australia ODI series begins at the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground, Virat Kohli comes out in the field for a warm up amid the loudest cheers. As he touches the ground and touches his forehead thrice, the thousands of Indian fans who have already gathered on the stands in anticipation go euphoric.
It may not matter what he scores today or whether he scores or not, considering he couldn’t open his account in the last two matches of the series, which India has lost to Australia anyway. But at SCG, which has a capacity to seat 43,000 and no tickets left, the smiles and cheers don’t tell the story of loss, but of undying love for cricket, and for the cricketers.
FOLLOW LIVE | IND vs AUS Sydney ODI
The lightrail that arrives at Moore Park station, closest to the SCG, is full of men, women and children in blue, many sporting the No. 18 Virat jersey. Inside the lightrail too, anticipation is to see Kohli bat and see India win today. Avinash Patel, a civil engineer from Rajkot, who is travelling to watch the match with a dozen colleagues, says “India will win today. No matter they lost the series, they have to win today. Also, we don’t consider the loss of first match as a loss, it was spoiled by the rain.”
And what if Kohli can’t bat well today? “He has done a lot for the game, one or two matches don’t decide anything. It’s a delight to see him come out on the ground with passion,” chips in his friend.
Outside the stadium, the loudest bhangra beats reinforce the story of celebration – of the man they have come out to watch and of cricket. Kids are getting their faces painted with Indian flags, and people are scrambling to get a good seat. No one wants to leave early if India loses or any of the big Indian players don’t play well.
For every 100 blue jerseys, there is perhaps one yellow jersey to be spotted. But Australians will come in just before the game starts, says Ashley Kent, who has come to watch the India-Australia game for the first time even as she has watched a few ties from the Ashes earlier.
But Australians turning up for India matches also demonstrates the stature of Indian cricket growing in the country of SCG and MCG. No wonder then that the museum at SCG has a dedicated section for only one country besides the home team – men in blue.
Everyone has a Virat or Sachin story to tell. Besides Kohli, this may also be the last time Rohit Sharma is playing in Australia as the duo have already announced retirement from Tests and T20 formats and there is no ODI series planned for anytime soon.
This would be Australia’s goodbye to two players they adored. A lot of Indian students in the stands talk about the new Indian identity they got post Kohli. As Mitch Marsh and Shubhman Gill come out for the toss, the crowd cheers again and stands have started to look bluer.
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