"Halla Bol"

Cricket has been called and considered a religion in India; it is not only a game but an emotion for Indians. Every year crores of Indian rupees are invested in leagues, matches, and tournaments across various cities and destinations. Many famous cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have changed the face of Indian cricket in the past years. Being born into an Indian household I always had a passion for cricket, since childhood we have been playing it in our locality and community centres. Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional men’s twenty20 league where 10 teams from various cities contest with each other to win the trophy.

IPL has always been fascinating for me, it’s a different vibe and every year various players are auctioning and different locations and that is the most amazing part of it. Every year I aim to go to at least one of the IPL matches and my favourite team is ‘Mumbai Indians’, because I come from Mumbai, and it is the home team.

In 2015, the IPL season was one of the best, two of the best teams i.e., Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings made it through the playoff into the finals at Eden Gardens in the city of Kolkata. We had previously purchased tickets for me and my family as we got a special discount. The two teams are fierce competitors, and their rivalry has been going on since 2008. It was a great match because both teams were in the finals, and it had to be an amazing view to look at.

On 24th May was the finals, we took a flight from Mumbai to Kolkata and landed up at the Match-day. The city was decorated with banners, there was so much good energy, it already felt like people were going to celebrate some festival. We booked a hotel room for us near the stadium and splashed some water and we were all set to go. The stadium was close still it took us an hour to reach due to immense traffic, fans were chanting slogans and they were all in their favourite team jerseys and they had face paintings and tattoos which was a total vibe setting environment.

The Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to field, which was obvious as it was a chasing pitch. There was music in the stadium, lots of energy, blowhorns, trumpets and a lot more. The first ball was at 7:30 pm and Rohit Sharma who is the captain in on strike with Lend Simmons on the off strike. Simmons got stumped at the 8th over and scored a total of 68 runs. Rohit Sharma scored a half-century and got caught out by Jadeja. Ambati Rayudu and Hardik Pandya scored around 38 runs each and at the end of 20 overs the total was 202/5, and that was the end of the first innings. The crowd cheered on every 6 and every 4 that is been scored. There was an estimate of 55,000 fans in the stadium and the count of each team seemed to be equal. During the break, we grabbed some food from the concession stands and we were all set to watch the second innings.

Chennai had to score a total of 203 in 20 overs to win the game. Mumbai has an efficient team of bowlers which posed a difficult task for CSK players. Dwayne Smith and Michael Hussey, two of the most experienced batsmen in cricket history, initiated their play as on and off strikers. The crowd was stunned, and everyone was looking at MS Dhoni who is the captain of CSK. Such important decisions in Cricket come from experience and excellent leadership skills. They both scored a century in partnership proving that batting first was an excellent decision.MS Dhoni was on strike next, the crowd cheered as he is one of the most famous players in Indian Cricket and is known for his captaincy. He scored less comparatively and then players kept getting knocked off one after the other and it was a dangerous scene. In the end, the situation was CSK needed 32 runs in 2 overs that is 12 balls. The situation became intense, and the crowd remained silent. All the heartbeats were synced, and you could feel the silence around. Chennai required run rate was around 12 and, in the end, Mumbai Indians won the final of the Indian Premier league of 2015. It was a hell of a moment; people ran to the ground and celebrated the win. The scene was out of hand and people could not express how happy they were. It was truly an emotion. My family was so overjoyed, and we could feel the moment. It truly felt like a festival, and it was one of the glorious days of my life. Cricket is more of an emotion than a sport.