Away from home, India at home

London, May 29
“It’s Little India in there,” says the securitywoman at the entrance of the Oval ground. She’s right, it was little India at the Oval indeed, though it could more accurately be termed Absolute India. Over 17,000 fans turned up to watch India’s warm-up match against New Zealand today. All of them had south Asian faces. All of them were supporting India. It was Absolute India.
The only New Zealanders at the Oval seemed to be the 15 players of their squad and their media manager at the press box. There may have been a few more of them in the stands; however, if they were there, they were drowned in a sea of Indian shirts and flags.
A treat
Absolute India at the Oval had a Sunday treat. First, India’s bowlers knocked New Zealand over for 189 in just 38.4 overs. Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up three wickets each. The two reaped the rewards after bowling with control and intelligence; the New Zealanders occasionally played false strokes (Kane Williamson, Neil Broom), occasionally they were done in by the skill of the bowlers (Luke Ronchi). When the batsmen tried to brazen it out with force, it didn’t work – as in the case of Corey Anderson or Mitchell Santner. The result was a bit of a mess for New Zealand — 86/4 to 126/7 to 189 all out.
The chase
India’s chase was powered by patchy, lucky but fruitful innings from Shikhar Dhawan (40) and Virat Kohli (40 not out). The Indians got lucky as New Zealand, uncharacteristically, dropped catches they should have taken, especially the ones off Kohli and Dhoni. If taken, those catches would have made things difficult for Indians in the middle and unsavoury for the Indians in the stands.
The early fall of Ajinkya Rahane delighted the crowd, for they spotted Kohli walking down the steps from the dressing room. Kohli was dropped on 1 after he chased a wide delivery from Trent Boult – he hit it towards Santner at short cover, who had to leap up to grab the ball. He failed to do it, and Kohli escaped. He escaped on 13, too, when Jimmy Neesham dropped him. During this slippery-fingered stage of New Zealand’s fielding, Kohli and Dhawan played some sweet shots, none sweeter than Kohli’s straight drive off Adam Milne in the ninth over.
Later, after Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik fell, Dhoni brought some joy to the fans with some powerful hits. These included a shot that went for a six over the cover boundary after Colin de Grandhomme, trying to catch the ball, tipped it into the crowd.
Then the heavens opened. New Zealand’s innings was cut short by India’s bowlers; India’s innings was cut short by rain. The Indian Tricolour in the stands swiftly gave way to umbrellas as the sunshine withered and rain started falling.
The match was abandoned, with India far ahead on the Duckworth/Lewis equation. A victory by 45 runs, a fun day for the fans, and India’s first serious hit of the tour, aptly, hit by the most English of rains.
Brief scores: New Zealand 189 (Ronchi 66, Neesham 46*, Bhuvneshwar 3/28, Shami 3/47); India 129/3 (Kohli 52*, Dhawan 40)