Hyderabad, November 06: One run required in setting another milestone in his career. The entire stadium cheered Sachin Tendulkar as he scored his 17,000th One-Day International run in his career. He scored the run off the 17th ball in his innings.
The crowd watched in silence as it watched Sachin achieve the feat. Once that was accomplished, the delighted crowd shrieked and screamed.
“I’m proud to be part of the crowd that witnessed the ‘Little Master’ achieve another record,” said Anirudh, a student who came with his classmates and friends to watch the match.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was a working day, Hyderabadis turned up in hordes, proving that the interest in the 50-over game is still strong.
The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium at Uppal was packed to the hilt on Thursday.
Pointing to the crowd, a Hyderabad Cricket Association member expressed that there are no signs of people moving away from the ODI format.
“Even the seats from where there is limited view of the field were sold out. With some channels reporting that there are around 2,000 tickets left, several people approached us even as we told them that there were no tickets available,” he informed.
Exhibiting a sportsman spirit as well, Hyderabadis gave a standing ovation to Australian Shaun Marsh, who scored a century here on Thursday. D Praveen Kumar, who came all the way from Vizag to watch the match said it was the contest which was more exciting than the result.
Spectators started arriving at the stadium as early as 11.30 am.
There was heavy rush on both Tarnaka and Amberpet routes to reach the stadium and the traffic was jammed at many places despite policemen doing their best to keep vehicles moving.
–Agencies