While travelling to the Chinnaswamy Stadium, there is always a sense of anticipation. Fans making a beeline to enter the stadium, with police personnel having a tough time controlling the frenzied atmosphere. But on a pleasant Monday morning, with Haryana about to take on Karnataka in a crucial Ranji Trophy encounter, all that one could observe was the typical hustle-bustle of a crowded city. Vehicles moved back and forth on a busy Queen’s road. In fact, at around 8.50 AM, the number of fans in front of the main gate was less than the fingers on your hand.
For a moment, it was a bit of a surprise to witness the low turnout as the home side had its share of fine players – From KL Rahul to Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna. It took one more hour for the crowd to slowly build up. By 10 AM, around 70-80 fans had made it to the only stand that was open – Stand No.15. A bunch of kids, most likely from a cricket academy, were creating a bit of din as Agarwal and KV Aneesh went about collecting the runs.
All that was about to change. As soon as Aneesh was castled by the reliable Anshul Kamboj, there was a cacophony of sounds. Rahul, the India cricketer, had walked out to take strike. There were chants of “Rahul, Rahul” and a few whistles too. It almost seemed as if some of the fans outside the stadium were following the scorecard. Just a few minutes after Aneesh was dismissed, they decided to make it to the stadium.
Meanwhile, out in the middle, it was Agarwal, the Karnataka skipper, who went about showcasing his batting prowess. Barring a couple of boundaries down the ground, he was largely circumspect early on in his innings. He then expanded his range of shots, especially against Jayant Yadav’s off-spin.
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The way he lofted Jayant down the ground gave an inkling of his ability to pick the length quickly against spin. To illustrate the point further, the drive through covers off the same bowler was a delight to watch. At the last possible moment, Mayank opened the bat face and essayed a shot that had enough panache associated with it.
Unfortunately for Karnataka and all the fans that had turned up, Rahul was dislodged after the lunch break, with Kamboj tempting him to edge one. He did play a few well-timed shots, but he also had his share of nervy moments, which included an appeal for a catch in the cordon. The two umpires adjudicated that it wasn’t taken cleanly.
Despite losing his batting partner, Agarwal continued to play with a fair amount of flourish. And with Padikkal for company, Karnataka would be eyeing a big score. The main theme of the game, though, would be how the crowd slowly but steadily grew in number as the day progressed. Hopefully, that would be the case for the rest of the game.
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