Started by beating my alarm clock to the shower because of excitement! Had the kit ready for the day: green and white, check; food and water, check; camera, check; tickets, absolutely checked. I went with my father and we hopped on to a cab-van jam-packed with fans from India, Bangladesh and ofcourse, Pakistan. There was even a Saffer in there with his American wife. The ride there was filled with talk about cricket. The cab driver himself bought tickets for tomorrow's game as well as the semi-finals. He mainly boasted about how well Sammy did the previous evening, him being from St. Lucia, and it wasn't to be the last time Sammy was mentioned.

When we arrived, we seamlessly passed through the security checkpoint and headed towards our seats. We met some Afghanistan fans, who, after being told they were being rooted for against India, replied "It's just a game. Let's hope it's a good one." We also ran into Caribbean flavored dancers who didn't mind posing for the camera. When we arrived at our seats, the sun was beating down hard. The humidity level made it fairly unforgiving (I'm acclimatized to Canadian weather!), so we took shelter on the concrete between two blocks of seating at the very back. I hope this explains why for half the day the ground looked empty. We then met some enthusiastic WI fans, again boasting about Sammy's heroics the previous night. We gradually got to discussing the great cricketers of the past, and let me tell you, the WI fans really appreciate our cricket thanks to Imran Khan's side of the 80's (he was the favorite for a lot of them).

Afghanistan vs. India:

India obviously won the toss and elected to field, which delighted the scattered, but sizable Indian contingent. At the start of the innings, everyone, but the Indian fans around us, wanted it to be a close game. Thanks to Nehra's “vicious” bouncers, we were left appreciating Noor Ali's innings, who played a memorable innings for his country; full of confident shots and fearless batting. It will certainly be remembered by the fans who watched it. And when Gambhir played a loose shot, a certain, but chilled buzz began to envelope. After all, this is the WI, and unless there are toe-crushing yorkers, deadly bouncers or big stroke-play, the cricket is watched only with intent and discussion. The Indian's made most of the noise when Dhoni lofted those consecutive 6's, but everyone felt Afghanistan did well for their first outing. Certainly the WI supporters were impressed, and I have to say their knowledge of the game is probably the more mature version of any other nation I have encountered (ofcourse, being such "cool" people, it comes naturally). A note about the Afghani's: They really seem to be the best Associate side at the moment. If Noor's innings is an indicator, they have some classy batsman. And their bowlers did really well, despite the understandable indiscipline, in front of the camera. The fielding was hit-and-miss, more hits. They have the basics to be a dangerous side in the future, and if they get more exposure, I can see them surpass Zimbabwe and Bangladesh really soon.

The first game was out of the way and so were the Indian supporters. Most of them decided to leave after they won, which was in poor taste. But the locals kept flooding in. The amount of kids at the game was unbelievable. They just kept coming in throughout the day; just walking around, having fun, doing what kids do. You could have packed a couple of stands with them!

Pakistan vs. Bangladesh

This is when the atmosphere started building up. By this time the shade had covered all of the Western stands, and as thus, the crowd started evening out more. The warm-ups went without notice, but when Salman Butt surpassed Kamran Akmal in run-scoring, you could sense the buzz coming back. Every hit was cheered for, in their own mellow way, and the shots were taken in, like someone who enjoys life in the present. At the 15 over mark, the general feeling was the Bangladesh was out of the contest, but they came back strongly. It was more a case of Bangladesh bowling well than Pakistan batting poorly. Misbah and Razzaq especially tried to clear the ropes, but just couldn't get the ball away. You probably noticed that with the amount of runs they ran. At the close of the innings, the feeling was that Bangladesh were still out of the contest. After All, 173 was one of the highest scores of the tournament so far and the slow pitch, long boundaries, slow outfield (it rained the night before) wouldn't have helped.

Then came the Shakib-Ashraful show. Only after Mohammad Ammer's superb first spell. They really love the pace bowling here. When I told the fans around us that he's only 17/18, you could sense the disbelief in them. Back to the partnership however. After the Afghanistan/India trial, everyone wanted to see a close game. Ashraful played so well in his shot selection and looked in such good form, it really enlivened the contest. People starting getting into the action again, supporting Bangladesh in their quest for an unlikely victory. The sixes Shakib and Ashraful made were HUMONGOUS. Shouts of “Shot boy” or “Bombaclat!” were heard all-round. The Bangladeshi fans started cheering in the front rows. By the 15th over of the Bangladesh innings, things started getting tense. But then Afridi waved his magic wand by bringing on Sami with an inspired decision to have third man up in a fly-slip position. You never ask a magician how he does his magic, and so, everyone took it in with wonder. That’s when the game dwindled out, but the majority of the spectators, with good gamesmanship, stayed till the very last ball. All in all, it was a very relaxed atmosphere, very much in contrast to the commercial IPL or the high-tempo England T20 WC. I thoroughly enjoy it, and I highly encourage everyone to change their mindset if they want to as well. This is T20 WI style. There was lots of noise, music, dancing, chatting, and ofcourse good cricket. Tomorrow’s expected to be a full-house and more intense as the big-boy’s match up for important encounters.

*PS. I’m trying to figure out this picture uploading thing (I got a couple hundred shots I want to share). Hopefully I’ll be able to get it up by tomorrow night, if not, then Monday when I’m back.

*Another side note, I met Dhoni at Razmataz for dinner (the only Indian restaraunt on the island) and he seems like a very social fellow, joking around with everyone while waiting for his food and chatting with the Afghanistan team which was also there.