Plays of the day

Billionaire caps and true fans

Cricinfo staff

April 20, 2008

	Bottles being thrown onto the ground and disrupting games is commonplace, but debris from a fireworks display causing a delay is largely unheard of © AFP

True fans
Mumbai crowds are known to be the most noisiest and notorious, and when Rahul Dravid, the away captain, was introduced at the toss a loud round of boos reverberated around the ground. Every appeal by the Royal Bangalore Challengers received a similar deafening response from the 40,000 Mumbai Indians. It was proof enough to suggest Mumbai's fans would be the first to imbibe the true fan culture that has eyes and ears only for their own.

Ragpickers
Things happen in a blur in Twenty20 cricket. So every minute counts. But eight precious minutes were lost when groundsmen and volunteers assumed the ragpicker's role clearing the debris left after the fireworks that marked the host teams's first encounter.

Not so lazy
At one point during his career, Zaheer Khan was termed as being lazy. He's steadily dispelled that notion and on Sunday evening he proved once again those days were well behind him. Sanath Jayasuriya couldn't push one down the leg side but reluctantly started for a single called by Robin Uthappa. An alert Zaheer rushed on his follow through to around short leg, picked the ball, turned about and knock off the bails with his throw, all in one motion. The effort personified the new Zaheer, who was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year recently for his efforts in England last year, where he had shown the same vigour.

"We want sixer, we want sixer ..."
This was the popular demand of the crowds when the likes of Gavaskar and Gooch played. But in Twenty20 sixes are the norm. Even then the Mumbai Indians could manage only five, leaving their die-hard fans hungry for more. Was it because the boundaries weren't short enough?

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