Navi Mumbai, Nov 2 With the Indian women's team playing their first home final of the ODI World Cup, the DY Patil Stadium was packed as the hosts faced first-time finalists South Africa on Sunday.
The interest in the team's performance and the final had multiplied many times over after India's inspiring victory against Australia in the historic semi-final, where the Women in Blue successfully mounted a record chase, thanks to a majestic unbeaten 127 by Jemimah Rodrigues and her exhilarating partnership of 167 runs with captain Harmanpreet Kaur, which set the tone for the win.
That victory further fuelled interest in the match, and there was a massive surge in demand for tickets.
The result was that the International Cricket Council (ICC) was compelled to display a banner at the main gate of the DY Patil Stadium announcing the match as "sold out". To emphasise this, the sport's global organisation also issued a message via social media stating that seats were not available in the stadium.
The impressive aspect of the large crowd that filled the stadium on Sunday was their determination to attend despite the rain. They braved the rain, waited patiently for two hours for the toss, which was delayed due to rain spells and the wet outfield.
Fortunately, the match began just in time to avoid losing any overs due to bad weather.
The rain has not dampened the enthusiasm and spirit of the people, and with fans arriving in large numbers, all previous attendance records are likely to be broken. The crowd kept cheering the ground staff every time they came onto the ground to remove the covers. The biggest cheer was reserved for the Indian team when it came out to warm up after the first interruption. An even bigger applause was reserved for Jemimah Rodrigues when she came to bat with the score reading 104/1 in the 18th over.
The previous record at the stadium was 34,651 fans who attended the second semi-final between India and Australia. The stadium can hold a total of 45,000 supporters.
The match is an excellent advertisement for women's cricket, with two teams who have never won the title battling it out to become the new world champions.
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