Navi Mumbai, Oct 30 Things were not going as expected for India in the middle, but there was history in the making outside the boundary wall as a huge crowd gathered at Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai for their second semifinal of the ICC Women's ODI World Cup against Australia on Thursday.
Though the ICC is yet to give the official figures, unofficial estimates put the crowd in the vicinity of 25,000, which will set a new record for the largest number of spectators inside a stadium for a women's cricket match.
In the middle, India were struggling to contain the Australian batters as seven-time winners and the defending champions Australia cruised to 225/3 in 35 overs, but the crowd was enjoying themselves, supporting the Indian team.
Despite it being a Thursday and there being a threat of rain plaguing the match, the crowd started filling the stadium early, and by the midway stage in the first innings, it was jampacked. With hosts India taking on the mighty Aussies in their quest for the maiden title, there was huge interest in the match, with tickets being scalped for as high as Rs 500 for a ticket priced at Rs 100.
The stadium was expected to break the record it set during the India versus New Zealand game last week, when 23,180 spectators were seated inside the stadium at 6:15 pm. That broke the previous record of 22,843 spectators recorded during the opening match of this tournament between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati on September 30.
The crowd had further swelled past 23,500 by 7 pm on that day before people started leaving the stadium because of the rain.
The number count promptly swelled past the previous record even as Australia was batting. It definitely will grow further when India starts batting, and the stadium is expected to reach its highest number ever for any match.
On Thursday, people started gathering early to gain entry into the stadium, lining up a good two hours before the scheduled start, despite it not being a weekend, wading through the vendors lining up the streets around the stadium with jerseys, flags, caps and water colours to draw the tri-colour on the face.
The match was listed as sold out a couple of days back, and the interest continued to grow as it became clear that India would be taking on Australia.
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