The streets of Ahmedabad were a sea of blue as spectators donning India colours turned up for the marquee World Cup fixture against Pakistan at the 1,32,000-seater Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday.
With just a handful of Pakistan fans and media personnel permitted to attend the matchmost-anticipated fixture of the tournament, the home team enjoyed the maximum crowd support, as it pulled off a convincing seven-wicket win over the arch-rival.
However, sitting in the opponent’s dressing room, Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur felt that it was more like a bilateral series. “It didn’t seem like an ICC event, I would be pretty honest. It looked like a bilateral series, like a BCCI event,” Arthur said after the match. Usually, at every ICC event, fans from across the border turn up in large numbers to cheer for their team. But it was totally different this time around.
