Being an Indian Cricket Fan

Day 293 / 366

I am not as big of a fan of Indian Cricket as I used to be. I was not even aware that we had a Test series with New Zealand until I saw someone watching it at the office. I decided to start following the first Test match and it soon reminded me of how frustrating it could be to watch cricket.

India got bowled out for 46 runs in the first innings. An absolute embarrassment, made worse by the fact that it happened on home soil. But the Indian Cricket Team has this bad habit of giving you hope. When NZ was at 233–7, I got a slither of hope, that maybe we could make a match out of this. But an amazing 100 by Rachin Ravindra meant that they got a 350-run lead. And again, all hope was lost.

A test match might seem slow, but it definitely is a roller coaster ride. The 50s by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli meant that India was in a hopeful situation again. And Kohli was looking on course to get another venture. We were 230–2, but then Kohli got out at 70.

Rishab and Sarfaras took India over 400 and got us into the lead. I was doing the mental coping thing of assuming that the score was now 50–3 (since India was leading by 50 runs) and how surely we could get to 300 from here. The hope was now at an all-time high.

But it was not supposed to last for long. India got bowled out for 462 and the day ended. Now NZ needs to make 107 runs on the last day tomorrow to win the test.

And if I’ve learned anything from watching cricket, I know that we will get 2 quick wickets tomorrow morning, and every Indian fan will start believing that “yes, we can win this” only for Conway or Rachin to score a quick 50 ball 50 and end the match.