The first of the six matches of IPL 2016 at the ACA-VDCA stadium might at best be described as not a totally satisfying fare for the near-capacity crowd on Sunday.
They watched Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh slamming the Mumbai Indian bowlers around after David Warner played another aggressive knock in his typical style, but they are disappointed that Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Pollard failed to hit back in their own blistering fashion, as Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman along with Barinder Sran, Bhuvneswar Kumar and Moises Henriques shot out the Mumbai side in quick time.
Thus the second part of the show was a damper for the spectators who wanted to watch a slam bang show. There are, of course, some occasions for them to cheer loud, like when MI’s icon Sachin Tendulkar appeared on the giant LED screens while conversing with a television commentator.
The result might not have gone the Mumbai Indians, but the 3,000 underprivileged children from several municipal and government schools brought to the stadium by the team’s owner and head of the Reliance Foundation’s Education For All programme Nita Ambani had a whale of a time, enjoying every moment of the match. Ms. Ambani sat with the children for a long time and cheered her team.
Interestingly at the IPL matches at the stadium, the team that makes it its home ground has not performed well, and Mumbai seems to be no exception. It has to be seen how Rising Pune Supergiants the other team that made Visakhapatnam as neutral venue performs against Sunrisers on Monday night. MI and SRH have shared the space inside the stadium with their banners and other publicity material.
Spectators reaching the stadium in their thousands had a pleasant experience as they drove almost non-stop to the stadium from the city. Unlike normal matches, there was a small crowd outside the stadium.
