London Diaries 3 | The Lords Extravaganza.

Right from the beginning, one of the high priority items in terms of To Dos in London was a trip to Lords. Not just for the sheer love of the game and the rich history associated with Lords but more so with the kind of perception we have had while growing up and watching the Lords matches on TV. For instance, we were quite sure that there is a clear mandate here of 4 claps for a boundary, 6 for a maximum, 10 for a wicket and may be 15 for a half century and so on. Similarly, one couldn’t enter the stadium in anything but formal clothes and naturally the idea of taking off ones shirt and twirling it in air by some Bengali (not so) gentleman has been documented as the darkest day in the history and sanctity of  Lords – The Home of Cricket! So with such a rich baggage of perceptions in mind, who would not want to visit the Lords sooner than later, with a lot more fervour though, if India is playing a test against the hosts here.

The Build Up. I teamed up with one of friends for this match and booked the tickets a week in advance for the 3^rd day of the test. Assuming it to be the most riveting day of the test with a high probability of getting to watch both the teams batting that day. Although, the 90£/- billing of the ticket did cause a minor earthquake back home but for me it was all inconsequential keeping in mind the excitement attached to the overall experience. The build-up to the match in the media wasn’t in the favour of India, mainly due to our horrendous record here, having registered just a  single win here, that too around three decades back. That however didn’t had any bearing on our unbridled excitement, as the key focus was on experiencing the Lords magic.

The Apprehensions.  Once we got the tickets we countered a set of unique apprehensions. The instructions in the ticket spoke about not turning up for the match in fancy dresses, a subtle way of saying that be formal, its Lords. Not to carry any musical instruments like drums, trumpets or siren, a polite way of saying behave yourself, its Lords. The instructions also clearly stated about not moving from ones allotted seats between the overs, a mild way of saying we mean real business, its Lords. And many such uncharacteristic instructions like not to carry a camera, the hats should not be bigger than the prescribed limits, not to carry more than 2 pints of beer bottles and so on, again a very English way of saying, Gentlemen its Lords! We were confused on the fact that are we actually going for a Cricket match or for a Viva-Voce, nevertheless the excitement to experience the Lords magic was overpowering.

 
Day 3. Finally the much anticipated day arrived, arrived with a downcast morning and wet roads. I had a lump in my throat looking at the dark skies, fearing for the worst that it might actually be a rain curtailed day. Nonetheless, I got ready, put on a shirt to keep myself as close as possible to the Lords code of conduct and set out for THE destination. Thankfully, as the day progressed the skies cleared up and we had a perfect day in hand with full days of Cricket being played. We reached the stadia well before the schedule start of play, giving us ample time to have a look at the magnificent and historic stadium. When we reached our allocated stand, the first look of the lush green outfield, the famous Lords balcony and the grand media stand blew us away. It was all for real! The scene we have been watching for years on our television sets is all there to be seen with our naked eyes. It was certainly a great moment and with team India doing there warm up drills just in front of our stands, added to our excitement. We quickly lunged to the 1^st row, just yards away from the players, where MS was showcasing his great dribbling skills, Virat was as always in full style looking nothing less than a Bollywood star, muscular and tattooed Dhawan was twirling his moustaches with pride, lousy Ashwin was struggling to keep pace with the much fitter members of the team and the lanky Ishant Sharma was struggling to manage his locks in the brisk early morning wind. The fun, camaraderie and the friendly banter among our beloved stars was indeed a treat to watch and promised of a great day ahead.

The Cricket. In the morning session India did well to wrap up the England innings and much to our joy we got an opportunity to see our boys both bat and ball that day. So the ploy of coming on Day 3 worked for us. The post lunch session was a slow progress with Indian batters focussing on consolidating, leaving the spectators on the ground bored to death. However, the third session was a complete contrast with India losing a flurry of wickets and in turn giving away their position of strength and leaving the match in the perfect balance at the close of play. All in all it was a perfect day of Cricket, pretty much to the delight of connoisseurs of Test Cricket and nothing less than what a first timer at Lords would have asked for.

The Epic Moment. The match started with a backdrop of an ugly spat between James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja in the previous test and hence the focus was naturally on these two players. So when Jadeja turned up to bowl to James Anderson , the English fans booed him vehemently. But the epic moment arrived when Jadeja got his prized scalp on his very first delivery and went on his customary celebratory run after that. It was indeed THE cricketing moment of the day for us, much to the dismay of the English fans.

Fan Club Tussle. It was one of those rare occasions for any India match where the no. of non -  Indian fans outnumbered the Indian contingent, so much so that the ratio actually stood to be around 80:20. So to cheer team India amidst such a sea of English fans was an effort none less than battling Anderson and Broad on the green Day 1 pitch. The stern stares from the neighbouring English fans every time we cheered an England wicket or an Indian boundary  told the entire story. To be honest it wasn’t the most comfortable of experiences but definitely a memorable one.

The day eventually ended and we headed back home with loads of photographs, lovely memories and an experience to savour for life. It wasn’t one of the most electric atmospheres when I compare it my other live match experiences in India but it still stands out. It was indeed a Lords experience. An experience that one can acknowledge and savour only by experiencing it. And two days later this experience turned all the more memorable and historic when India went on to win the match and achieved this unique feat after a gap of 28 long years. Only if we knew that they so desperately  wanted our presence in the viewing arena to win a match here, we would have turned up many years earlierJ.

The only thing that I missed though was the presence of The Sachin Tendulkar on the ground.Looking ahead for my next trip to Lords!
--
kin…