Gargi Raut at Eden Gardens
On 4 August, Jamie Overton and Jamie Smith walked in with England needing only 35 runs to win the match. The odds were stacked against India and the result seemed all but sealed in England’s favour. Many wrote India off; logically it made little sense for them to make an inroad from there. But this Indian team is one that believes in flipping the tables.
It is a norm in England that Test match tickets are sold at full price only until Day Four, and the prices for Day Five are slashed considerably if the game goes that far. Even when the chips were down, even when the world said this was England’s game to lose, Indian supporters came out in huge numbers, knowing full well that it was a matter of hardly a couple of hours before the result would be decided. For the first time in the five days of the Test, The Oval stands, standing tall in all their peculiar beauty, from the historic brick on one end to a construction site on the other, were all blue. A crowd that cheered every dot ball and every run saved. That day, the people were truly the twelfth man.
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And as Mohammed Siraj spun magic, removing both Overton and Smith, and Prasidh Krishna bowled like never before from the other end, running in tall with a newfound responsibility in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, the crowd roared. Looking back on that day, you start to wonder: how much of a part did the crowd have to play in that victory? No run-up was left without noise, no good fielding was left without cheers. And when it came to respecting the opposition, like when Chris Woakes came out to bat one-handed, the crowd stood and clapped until he got to the crease.
Kolkata, the City of Joy, lives and breathes sport, be it football or cricket. At a time when the relevance of Test cricket is questioned, the Eden Gardens crowd has impressed. With a total attendance of over 42,000, you start to wonder: can Eden Gardens, too, pull off an Oval? Will we see packed crowds for the final few hours of play? Can a pleasant Kolkata morning, with the breeze from the Ganges flowing through the gaps between the stands and into a packed Test crowd, create a feast for the eyes?
While India firmly have the upper hand, the home Test against New Zealand has taught us not to get ahead of ourselves. After all, South Africa are the World Test Champions and India will be batting on a tricky wicket. If The Oval showed us anything, it’s that a crowd can shift the pulse of a match. Now it’s Kolkata’s turn. If Eden rises, India will feel it too. And Test cricket? Well, Test cricket needs crowds like these.