bangalore was a great city to live in because there were ample opportunities to attend cricket matches. i very clearly remember attending 3 royal challengers bangalore ipl matches, 2 national team test matches, and 1 national team one-day match, and according to an old blog post i found there were two more ipl matches and a champions league t20 match that had slipped my memory.

the one that looms largest in my memory is the february 2011 world cup match between india and england. i had wanted badly to go in person but the tickets were too expensive, so instead i made plans with anthony appa to watch together in chamarajpet. i was on my way there when i got a call from manav — he had somehow scored two extra tickets to the match but we needed to meet him asap. i made the executive decision to say yes, called anthony appa to let him know we were going to the match and he needed to get ready, dropped my bag in chamarajpet, and off we went.

we got there about 5 minutes before the match started, parked the bike somewhere and hoped it would still be there at the end of the night, found manav to get the tickets, and then we were in.

india was in top form that year, and the energy inside the stadium was unbelievable. we were on our feet for most of the 8-hour match, screaming and cheering and urging on our team. and wouldn’t you know it, it came down to the last ball of the match. and then it was tied. tied! ties don’t happen very often in one-day matches, and even less so in world cups, so we were witness to history.

india went on to win that world cup, their first time since 1983, and i will never forget the feeling of getting to see them during their run to the championship.

i didn’t have my camera since i wasn’t expecting to be at the match, so here are a few photos from other matches throughout the years:

xx