Last Saturday (April 2) Saturday, India won the International Cricket World Cup, the first time since 1983.
Is this a big deal?
Well, cricket is to India what football is to Texas, soccer is to most of the world. It is basically the world series and Superbowl except international. It is HUGE. I can't even express how huge it is.
Cricket is kind of like baseball, and once you get the basic rules it is actually quite easy to follow. The "catcher" equivalent is called the "wicket keeper." How cool is that? The match started at 2:30pm and ended at around 10:30. It is an all day event-like Sunday football-but there is only one match for the entire time.
India played the final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai (aka Bombay) so they definitely had the hometown advantage. Surprisingly not many Americans here were totally into it, even though we are typically sports fanatics. We did get to a bar/restaurant to watch on a big screen with some friends. The game was really good. India bowled first (Pitching basically. Quick cricket lesson: One team does all the bowling at once, then switches and does all the batting. As a batter, you stay up until you are "out" which in cricket terms is called the bowler/bowling team getting a "wicket." The batter is not "wicket." Each team bowls a certain number of what are called overs-basically innings. There are 6 pitches/over, and 50 overs in World Cup rules. So as a team you bat until are your players are out OR you get to the end of 50 overs. Goal: score a lot. End Cricket lesson.)
India did really well until the end of Sri Lanka's turn where they gave up a lot of runs. India came up with some big bats, but Sri Lanka got several good batters out early, and it looked like it would swing Sri Lanka's way, but India pulled it out. The captain no less. Hitting the equivalent of a home run to with the game with only like 5 pitches left in the game. It was awesome.
Check out the gallery at WashingtonPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/india-wins-cricket-world-cup-for-1st-time-in-28-years/2011/04/02/AFOBNdQC_gallery.html
Cricket is kind of like baseball, and once you get the basic rules it is actually quite easy to follow. The "catcher" equivalent is called the "wicket keeper." How cool is that? The match started at 2:30pm and ended at around 10:30. It is an all day event-like Sunday football-but there is only one match for the entire time.
India played the final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai (aka Bombay) so they definitely had the hometown advantage. Surprisingly not many Americans here were totally into it, even though we are typically sports fanatics. We did get to a bar/restaurant to watch on a big screen with some friends. The game was really good. India bowled first (Pitching basically. Quick cricket lesson: One team does all the bowling at once, then switches and does all the batting. As a batter, you stay up until you are "out" which in cricket terms is called the bowler/bowling team getting a "wicket." The batter is not "wicket." Each team bowls a certain number of what are called overs-basically innings. There are 6 pitches/over, and 50 overs in World Cup rules. So as a team you bat until are your players are out OR you get to the end of 50 overs. Goal: score a lot. End Cricket lesson.)
India did really well until the end of Sri Lanka's turn where they gave up a lot of runs. India came up with some big bats, but Sri Lanka got several good batters out early, and it looked like it would swing Sri Lanka's way, but India pulled it out. The captain no less. Hitting the equivalent of a home run to with the game with only like 5 pitches left in the game. It was awesome.
Check out the gallery at WashingtonPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/india-wins-cricket-world-cup-for-1st-time-in-28-years/2011/04/02/AFOBNdQC_gallery.html
So huge deal to win. For my upstate NY blog followers, it was even more HUGE than Fuccillo. We took part in celebrations on drive home. There were some sights on the drive home we didn't manage to capture in photo because the camera was too slow: a kid dancing on the roof of the car, and a Sikh stripped down to underwear and turban running on the side of the road. We also didn't get photos of India gate-the roads were too jammed to get there. Was a HUGE party there too.
Below are the pictures we did get:
Below are the pictures we did get:
This is a picture of the "sixer" that won the game. Cricket's equivalent to a homerun.
This is in the street on the way home.
Literally dancing in the street.
And of course what is a celebration without fireworks?
Every single car is cheering and going nuts shouting "India India!"
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