Music at the Ekana

The date was 28 October, 2023. India were playing England at the Ekana, Lucknow in the 29th match of the ODI World Cup 2023.

At the end of the 1st innings the fans were quiet. India had managed to put on 229 at the end of 50 overs thanks to Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav.

At the end of 4 overs England where 26/0 and the stadium had gone into pin drop silence. Bumrah had other plans. He was not going to let the silence take over. The 5th over produced 2 wickets which started waking up the crowd.

When Shami came to bowl the 6th over, the crowd was pumped. The crowd was behind him. Cheering him on for every step of his run up. In the 6th over he bowled 4 balls to Ben Stokes. He left one ball and got beaten the next 3. In the 8th over he bowled all the 6 balls to Ben Stokes.

Stokes look like a deer caught in headlights. He had no idea where the ball was going till Shami bowled him of the 6th ball of the over and no fan would forget the expression Stokes had on his face.

Ask any fan who was in the stadium that day every one of us watched the game for India's bowling and not for the batting. The fans where cheering every dot ball. The result was India won by 100 runs. A game which the fans had written off was clutched back by the bowlers.