After missing the three eventfull matches that took secured india a berth in the final i was feeling ashamed of myself, i missed the 6 sixes of yuvraj, i missed india beating australia, i missed india beating south africa, if my dad comes to know about this he will disown me, how cud i do this to him and to cricket and all because of this stupid hotel in which i was staying which had a 14 inch tv and it looked even more smaller i mean a nokia n72 screen would look bigger in comparison after a couple of drinks, and to add to the misery it only showed 4 channels bbc 1&2 and channel 4& 5 channel 3 was blank and so were the other channels. I had made up my mind that i have to see the final even at the cost of selling my hotel rooms mini tv, tim in office suggested that i take a bus and go to houston station and i wud surely find some pubs showing the macth on big screen.
Bus no 73 took me to huston station where i got down at ucl college and after roaming around for fifteen minutes and asking people frantically where on earth can i see the match please please...try to understand its india playing pakistan in a world cup final, these encounters are made in heaven and like haileys comet only once in your life time would you see this phenomena happening, but to my surprise in a country which gave birth to this game (i dunno who the father is, may be cricket is a bastard) i cud not find a single soul to help me with finding a venue to see the game, why does england even bother to play cricket when people just dont care???
i walked past spearmint rhino which was exactly on my opposite side and heard a roar, to my left was a pub, "court" and there was a big screen and there were some sardarjis and cricket. i got myself a pint of guniess beer said hi to all the sardars and got on with the match....first floor of the court was filled with paki supporters and ground floor with indian, every indian wicket was cheered with whistles above and every boundry scored by us was cheered by louder screams, there was too much tension flowing, it was a feeling as if india loses that match then i would be captured and made a prisoner of war for the rest of my life and asked to break shahbad marble stones smuggled in to pakistan from india, there was only one door to get out of the pub, there were some paki supporters standing right next to the door so if pakistan loses the they will leave immedietely but if india lost...i and other sardarjees will have to pass through that door with eyes looking at our heads down....no i dint want that to happen...
6 runs scored of 2nd ball in last over and i gulped down my beer and stood next to the door in a get set go position waiting for the whistle...and then the catch....i dont know how loud was my scream cos there were more drunk sardarjees in their, i got a free beer from a surd who was on cloud nine, and i like a gentleman was shaking hands with every pakistani supporter leaving the pub saying "good match man, wel played, win or lose it was a good match" bang came the reply from one guy, "yeah good match, had we won it still would have been a good match"....
this is one match i will remember forever....
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