My India Pakistan Encounter !

Being the cricket fanatic that I am, experiencing an India Pakistan encounter live from the seat of a stadium was on top of my bucket list. These days India & Pakistan only play each other in ICC tournaments. In the summer of 2017, the ICC Champions Trophy was scheduled in the United Kingdom. So my wife, Ankita and I, like some of our previous holidays decided to plan a trip to London & Scotland keeping in mind the same. My brother in law, Dakshesh who is also equally passionate about the game of Cricket was in London during the course of this tournament.

The India-Pakistan encounter was scheduled in Birmingham on the 4th of June, which is coincidentally Ankita's birthday too. Just at the sight of the fixture being announced my adrenaline rushed to another level. Getting tickets on the lucky draw of the ICC website seemed even more difficult then winning at the casino. Somehow we 3 managed to get tickets through Bharat Army, India's largest cricket fan support group.

Few weeks before the tournament, there came a rumor that India could pull out of the Champions Trophy. Deep within I knew that is not going to happen, but after the investment in those tickets I got a little anxious. Well, that did not last long. As India confirmed their participation, I got to know our Visa is delayed and there was an outside chance we may have to reschedule our flight. Thankfully we got our passports one day prior to our departure and we were all set to go. 

We arrived in UK on the 1st of June. At the same venue where our match was scheduled on 4th, Australia & New Zealand had a game on 2nd June and it was abandoned due to the rain. There was a strong forecast for rain and thunderstorms on our match day as well. I started monitoring the weather forecast and checking it so frequently like an intraday stock trader.

We had an early morning on the match day, we went in the Bharat Army Bus from London to Birmingham. We reached the stadium about an hour prior to the match. It was cold, but luckily there was no rain on the match day yet. We soon heard the toss was scheduled on time, and Pakistan won it and opted to field first. Shikhar Dhawan & Rohit Sharma got India off to a great start. Soon the rain came in and umpires decided it was heavy enough for the players to walk off. Luckily the rain was not persistent and the rain gods were kind enough to ensure there's a game of Cricket. Although, through the course of the day there were many stoppages. 

During these small breaks, I had a great chance to interact with fans of Cricket from all over the globe. Majority of the people in our stands were Indians, but we had a few Pakistan supports, and a couple of people from West Indies as well. Having some intense Cricket discussions made sure the stoppages never felt long.

India scored 319/3 in 48 overs with all of the top five batsmen making good contributions. Pakistan were given a target of 289 off 41 overs (D/L). The pressure of the high required run rate got to them, and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Soon, some of the Pakistan supporters started hoping it rains again and both teams could share 1 point. But well late evening the sun was shining the brightest in Birmingham. And it were the Indian supporters who were dancing away to glory. India beat Pakistan by a comprehensive margin of 124 runs.

Pakistan had a terrible day as both their bowlers and batsmen failed miserably. One of the supporters  with whom I interacted a lot through the course of the game told me that he wishes well for Team India & hopes they win the tournament as he thinks Pakistan Cricket is influenced by a lot of politics and with their current team they have no chance to progress any further in the tournament. And I replied to him "Pakistan is the most dangerous after a thrashing defeat, who knows there could a complete turnaround & who knows what could be in store for them ahead" And what followed was that Pakistan won the Champions Trophy 2017. The rivalry will always be there, but at the end of the day we respected each other's passion for the game and wished well for each other.

With all the pre-match drama & possible setbacks, as they say all is well that ends well. And I lived my dream of witnessing India triumphing over Pakistan on my wife Ankita's birthday, which was the perfect icing on the cake.