Day 1 of Second Test: Chepauk comes alive with fans back in stands

CHENNAI: "Broady, Broady (Stuart Broad)," went the shouts from the upper tier of the I stand. Fielding at fine leg when Rishabh Pant was on strike, the pacer turned back.

As soon as he made eye contact with the group who was calling him, they went: "Yuvi, Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh had hit Broad for six consecutive sixes at the 2007 World T20). Broad acknowledged it with a wry smile.

Out of all the passages of play on Day 1 of the second Test, this one movement re-emphasised the one main difference between the first and the second Tests: fans in the stands. It also served as a reminder that even if this is the era of artificial noise and piped music, nothing comes close to the real thing. Centurion Rohit Sharma, who gave the city's 15,000 or so spectators an early Valentine's Day gift, concurred. "It was great fun to have them at the ground," he said.

"It is something that livens up the whole atmosphere. The intensity was low from both sides in the first game. It has been a long time since they have come and watched a game in India. Happy they enjoyed some good cricket." They did enjoy it. Harish R said it was just fantastic being back after months of being 'cooped up in the house'.

"I thought it was a fantastic day's play," he said. "Just showed how much I missed the feel and thrill of watching all this and how much I had taken it for granted. I don't think I will do that again." The thing that stood out for Aparaajith V was Chennai's enduring love for Test cricket. "Even if we have been starved of live sport for a while, I wasn't sure we would respond like this. So really delighted that the appetite for Tests is still there."

That Chennai turned out in big numbers shouldn't be a surprise. Even normally, fans tend to genuflect in the general direction of the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai's most popular sporting cathedral. Taking that into consideration, Saturday was no different.

Especially in this year of all years, where uncertainty, anxiety, disease and death have ravaged the city.

The coronavirus pandemic made its presence for the first time in the early week of March. Since then, its been ever-present, like an unwelcome visitor that has threatened to detail the entire health infrastructure. When the city went into lockdown last March, fans had just finished attending a few training sessions of Chennai Super Kings.

Since then, some have lost their loved ones, while others have lost jobs. Some have had to seek therapy, while others have stayed put indoors, with only a bottle of sanitiser for company. Watching a cricket match from the stands isn't going to change any of the above. But it will have given all of them the opportunity to smile and laugh.

To clap and applaud. And, ultimately, that's what they did on Saturday. Clapped. And Applauded. After 11 months of eerie, funereal silence at Chepauk, sound returned to the city's grandest sporting colosseum.