In the cash-rich and cricket crazy IPL season, spectating a cricket match and cheering for the home team in their last fixture on home soil is often the best experience that you could gift to cricket fans all over the country. With the VIVO IPL heading to the business end of its 11th edition, the race to make the play-offs is assuming greater gear as nearly all the competitors vie to make the knockout stages. We were among the lucky few to get tickets for the RCB vs SRH fixture at Chinnaswamy Stadium on 17 May 2018. The game was set to begin at 8:00 and as we stood outside the ground in a queue to the stands, we could hear the fans cheer and it seemed like we were a few minutes late for the start. To our fortune, however, we did not miss much of the action. We took our seats in a packed stand and the excitement in the atmosphere seemed to catch up with us within a couple of seconds of our entry. The fans had turned up in huge numbers, easily swelling to a full house being the last game of the season for RCB in the home ground. Painted faces and red flags filled the stadium as fans were eager to be treated to yet another of RCB's bold brand of cricket. As two wickets fell, the atmosphere was gripped with goosebumps and another batting slump for the team in red seemed evident. The spirits lifted, however, when Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers came out to bat. These two batsmen spared no bowler hitting them for boundaries all over the park. Delighted by the comeback of the RCB side, there was reignited excitement in the stadium. The tempo of the game was kept with the red till the end with Colin de Grandhomme and Sarfraz Khan playing an entertaining late blitz to anchor the innings. These masterful stroke-play was greeted by high-flying waving red flags, while the fans chanted for their favorite team in unison. The cheerleaders kept the crowd going in the intervals as well and the prompter was doing his part too. When the second innings started, the SRH openers punished the RCB bowlers and add to it their poor fielding in the powerplay. The Sunrisers got to a rocking start. Shikhar Dhawan hit a six from the middle of the bat and the bowl travelled to our stand, hitting a couple of seats to our side. The Sunrisers earned six runs that ball, nevertheless, the fans in our flank roared excitedly. As the match progressed, Sunrisers seemed all set to chase the mammoth total for the fall of two wickets. Two good batsmen were at the crease and it seemed like it was another bowling nightmare for weak RCB bowling side. Chahal bowled a tidy spell, but the other bowlers leaked runs with Williamson smashing them for sixes all-round. Many catches were dropped and RCB nearly lost the match because of their poor showing as a bowling unit. The fans were angered by the performance and many were exiting the stadium, believing it to be another flop match for the red team. However some tight overs in the death put the pressure back on the Sunrisers as they needed 35 runs in the last two overs. Fans were desperately watching each delivery and the home support seemed to do the magic again. RCB pulled off a nail-biting victory much to happiness of the fans as the fielders took some swift catches. The bowlers mixed caution with aggression and won the game, in turn, for RCB. The Kolhi-led side signed off on a high and we were happy to be a part of this moment and share the pride. All in all, it was the perfect game my brother, parents and I had wished for. We were happy to book tickets for this run fest match were a total of 425 runs were scored in all. Also, RCB winning the match made it a greater occasion to cherish.
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