There was something reassuring about the impromptu, entirely affectionate flashmob that greeted New Zealand’s players as they arrived back at the Taj Mahal Tower on the Mumbai dock-front on Tuesday night after a final pre-match training session at the Wankhede stadium.
The team hotel is just across from the Gateway of India monument, from where the spectacle of an ICC-branded bus pulling up seemed to inspire a mass change of heart over what constitutes a worthwhile day of sightseeing, hundreds of people catapulting the fences, steaming across the four-lane road and forming a cheering press – the appearance of Trent Boult caused an outbreak of Beatlemania-style squeals – held back at one end by a commendably patient duo of stick-wielding policemen.
