India at the WTC finals

On June 7th 2023, India played Australia at the Oval for the World Test Championships Final. I know because I was there. I traveled all the way from Edinburgh to London the previous day. Spent a sleepless night at a friend’s place, and then caught the underground to get to the Oval just before the first ball was bowled.

I remember shouting my throat hoarse at the beginning, it was just pure excitement. Watching our fast bowlers bowl, and realizing how fast they are, was some experience. The shouting soon mellowed, mainly because we started doing a few rounds of beer. The game continued between drinks and friendly chats with compatriots and some English members in the crowd – who were supporting India, due to the Ashes (of course). Bharat Army was there playing many a familiar tune on the Saxophone, with rhythm being provided by the Dhol. Now I truly felt the festive atmosphere in the ground.

The day’s play wasn’t that great for India. At the end of the day Australia were 327/3 with both Steve Smith and Travis Head looking great. We were at the Vauxhall stand which surprisingly was very close to many of the VIPs. We saw Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, Shikhar Dhawan, Chris Gayle, Harbhajan Singh, and of course the whole Indian and Australian cricket team.

The Indian crowd was brilliant. We cheered for our boys. But when the Australian batters hit a boundary, we clapped. When they scored a half-century or century, we applauded. There wasn’t any enmity towards the side that was out for our blood in the 90s and 00s. We were being fucking class.

And that’s when it struck me, in the middle of the match, on that sunny Oval day:

India has already won cricket. The result of WTC finals didn’t matter. The game is ours.