The cricket match is about to start again and I chat with Al, a 50-year-old man who grew up in India and just sends photos of the day to his friends.
He has been here in America for 20 years, but back in Chennai, the friends he grew up with will not stop texting him about the rain delay that is threatened, to clear out this match even before it starts.
“He asked me, how’s the weather?” said. ” ‘Can you look at the sky and see if the clouds have cleared?’ I had to literally take a picture of the clearing sky and send it to them.
“I said, ’10 minutes, bro, hold on. I talked to the weather gods. They promised me they’d get rid of it.’ That’s crazy.”
Finally, after two delays, the gods obliged. The sun is out. The biggest international cricket match in the world was played on Long Island, in front of a crowd of first- and second-generation Americans wearing blue for India and green for Pakistan, and the emotion was so elated that they got it. so here it is.
“It’s beyond words,” Al told me. “You were here during the national anthem? Do you feel it? Every grain of sand, every grass nearby will feel the vibration.
Some background: they’re playing this game here as part of the T20 World Cup, a biannual tournament co-hosted by the US T20 sharing format. One of the things most people know about cricket is that it takes five days to play, which is true, sometimes. Most international matches are now played in the one-day format; T20 is a shorter version meant to appeal to a larger audience, where each team gets 20 overs – a set of six balls.
Neelay and Baljit Bhatt, a couple from Indianapolis who flew in for the game, spent most of it answering questions I had before I could form them in my head. He’s an Indian fan, and that’s why it’s not good.
Pakistan won the coin toss – eliciting roars like I’ve never heard for a coin toss in a football game – and fielded first, a huge advantage on a wet field where the ball doesn’t travel far. Then, after a rain delay, he took Virat Kohli after only four runs, which was roughly the same as striking out Mickey Mantle, only if Mickey Mantle was then not allowed to hit for the rest of the game.
Amad, the Pakistani fan to my left in the row above me, chants Pakistan every two minutes and loses his voice. He is 29, from Queens, but has family in Lahore, the country’s second largest city, near the Indian border.
“It means everything,” he said. “Right now, I have a brother who sent me a video from Pakistan. They closed the roads. They have screenings all over the country. It’s celebrated as a national holiday.”
Looks like there will be more to celebrate. Pakistan have beaten India just once in 16 World Cup matches between regular and T20 formats. They held India to 119 runs and got 10 wickets, which I gather is enough to make the crowd very happy before they bat. My college roommate, an Indian-American, texted me that his team needed to pack up and things didn’t get any better once Pakistan started batting.
In Pakistan the first batter accounts for 31 runs. They will easily catch 119. India’s win probability, per ESPN’s CricInfo, stands at 1.98 percent with Pakistan more established. The crowd – mostly Indian fans – was dead.
Then, in the arrival of Jasprit Bumrah for India and Baljit leans over to tell me that he is considered one of the best bowlers out there. Think Mariano Rivera. Think 1999 World Series. The crowd was behind him. I don’t know much but I know Pakistan can’t beat this guy. Pakistan got just three runs, then just two from the next. It’s an implosion.
Suddenly, Pakistan needed 32 runs off the last 21 balls. Then they should be 26 out of 16. We’re counting down like it’s New Years. The crowd chanted Bumrah’s name every minute. They should be 18 from 6. They should be 16 from 3, then hit one to the boundary for four runs. He needs 12 from 2, which means he needs two sixes – the same as the home run. The dough reached one to us in the East stand. No one can see it. It landed just short.
India is going to do it. The final score was 119-113/7. I turned to my left and Amad was gone. The Bhatts wanted me to take a picture with them and, what the hell, I obliged.
Earlier in the day, talking about his daughter, who spent most of the match playing the family iPad, Baljit joked that she would be more into it if Fever was being played. “They are in the process of conversion,” he said.
Now, I think it’s over.