Mangalore soaks in Indo-Pak cricket frenzy

Mangalore, March 30: It was an undeclared bundh and day of curiosity coupled with cheers and tensions in the city of Mangalore on Wednesday as most people forgot their routine and sat before television sets at homes, offices, and malls after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss at Mohali stadium.

The World Cup fever has reached a high today, so much so that the usually bustling roads and streets of the city wore a deserted look and the parking lots of the busy commercial complexes across the city that are usually full, were empty.

Interestingly, the Nehru Maidan, which has a reputation of being filled with sports enthusiasts, especially cricket players and lovers even during the times of Mangalore bundh, witnessed only a couple of players in the evening.

Routine life came to standstill on the biggest pre-occupation day as few shops rolled down their shutters and a few establishments made arrangements for watching the match on big screens.

Huge crowds were sighted in front of big TV screens in some parts of the city. Every ball is being cheered by the overwhelmed off TV audience at various malls, petrol bunks and hotels of the city.

MphasiS, a BPO and IT firm had arranged giant screen in its newly built canteen for match viewing. “The bosses were little lenient today. Allowed us to watch the match since it is India-Pak," said Sriram, an employee at the BPO major.

No one is ready to miss the match!

Despite the fear of examinations, the students sat in front of the TVs making comment on each and every delivery. For Class X students, who are going to face the final exams from April 1, the match has been an absolute hurdle for their study for many hours. They swallowed the match holding books on their hands to console their parents.

Even those who do not understand the match scoring due to illiteracy, were seen being concerned about the match as they kept themselves informed by asking people about the game.

The cricket fever has not spared even the senior citizens, who usually spend most of their time in reading newspapers or walking through the parks, as they were also glued to TV sets at their homes.

Those professionals who have to work in all circumstances, even on holidays and also at odd hours, like doctors, journalists and policemen etc, had also made arrangements of not missing to watch the historic match.