Fans and frolic!

mid-day speaks to cricket enthusiasts who turned up at Marine Drive to catch a glimpse of their T20 World Cup-winning heroes during an open top bus parade

The grey skies turned blue as joyous scenes were witnessed across Marine Drive on Thursday with a huge gathering of Indian cricket fans celebrating their team’s T20 World Cup success. 

The Rohit Sharma-led team took part in an open top bus parade through the Queen’s Necklace, cheered on by a huge gathering of fans, who withstood intermittent rain and gloomy weather.  

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Rishabh Vazir, Siya Raikar and Artth Shenoi

The fans showed great patience.  Most were dressed in their replica India shirts and even brought along the national flag to show support for their heroes. The bus carrying the players, coaches and support staff to the Wankhede Stadium with skipper Rohit proudly holding aloft the silverware while also dancing and waving to his fans. Besides the huge crowd on the ground there were large numbers perched on their balconies dotting the sea-facing route. 

Such was the crowd that traffic came to a standstill and there were moments when even the team bus could not move forward.

Impressive Bumrah

While Rohit has been widely hailed for his leadership abilities and batting prowess, it was nice to see many fans praising some of the other players too, like pace ace and Player of the Tournament Jasprit Bumrah, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and batting icon Virat Kohli. Teenager Rishabh Vazir, 17, said he was eager to catch a glimpse of Bumrah. “Bumrah was the most impressive bowler in the tournament. He has such great control over his line and length and is extremely economical too. He clearly stood out in the final against South Africa. It was great to see him today,” Malad resident Vazir told mid-day. 

Another teenager, Siya Raikar felt, “Hardik’s comeback was brilliant in the final. His last two overs were decisive,” she said. 

‘Everyone contributed’

Artth Shenoi, 16, also a Malad resident, lavished praise on Virat and all-rounder Axar Patel. “As a team, we played very well with each player contributing in his own way. Though Virat did not fare well in the earlier matches, he played superbly in the final. Without his innings, we would never have been able to post that total. Axar also made some vital contributions with both bat and ball. It was great seeing all these heroes in front of us today,” Shenoi concluded.

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