The beauty of cricket in our country I think, is the child it brings out in all of us.
Yesterday, I had plans to sit at home and watch the match by myself. My dad might have joined in between, but otherwise it would have been just me.
At 6 o' clock on the dot, right after the first innings, my friend calls me and tells me to get ready in 10 mins we're going somewhere. I was sceptical because she's not a big cricket fan and I tried to tell her that there's a match going on and I want to watch but she just said 'I know, that's why I called after the last over, just come down we're going somewhere.'
15 minutes later I'm sitting on the back of her scooty and she's taking me to a screening, where 6 of our other friends are waiting. Half of them don't follow cricket at all, but they'd heard me talking about it so much they got interested.
We watched the entirety of the second innings in a restaurant screaming, crying, cheering. I'd forgotten to eat, so they would pile food on my plate and remind me to take a bite.
They held my hand when I would get tensed, asked me questions about what was happening when they didn't understand what was going on, and joined me when I started praying somewhere around the 42nd over. They danced on the street with me when we won.
This. This is the beauty of cricket. The joy, the sadness, the camaraderie, this is what cricket means to India.
And I will forever be grateful to the Indian cricket team for giving me this.
