ICC World Cup Melbourne turned into Mumbai and Mohali

This could so easily have been Mumbai or Mohali, given the sea of blue that drove the Indian team and the profusion of Indian flags across the vast expanse of the hugely populated stands. In reality, this was the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia's pride and joy, by a distance the ground that can seat the most spectators in international cricket.
In full capacity, the MCG can easily host nearly a hundred thousand spectators. It wasn't quite full on Sunday (February 22), but only by a little. The official number was 86,876 - a good 2000 more than what turned out when Australia hosted England on February 14. Among those in attendance on this wonderful Sunday as India sent South Africa on a hiding to nothing, were Sachin Tendulkar, one of the brand ambassadors of the World Cup, and Anil Kumble, who was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame at the break between innings.

Tendulkar and Kumble have played in front of huge crowds many times in the past, but not on a stage like the World Cup at a venue like the MCG, nearly twice as populous as the next biggest ground in the world. They must have got goosebumps, like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men, when the loudest cheer rang out after the Indian national anthem was played. They would have dearly wished to be part of the action, but they would have gladly settled, in retirement, for the spectacle that unfolded in front of them with a popular Indian victory the perfect icing on the sweetest, most delicious cake.
Till nearly 90 minutes before the 2.30pm start, the stands were completely empty. That's because the gates hadn't been opened yet. But outside, in the vast expanse that the MCG complex is, there was a tremendous stream of people - of all ages, men and women and teenagers and young kids, several of them queuing up to get the India colours inked on their faces, others struggling through the teeming masses to line up in front of their respective gates.
Official attendance 86,876

There were a few South Africans too - more than a few actually - but they were obviously comprehensively outnumbered. As outnumbered as their team was outplayed out in the middle.
The crowd wasn't as vocal as the one at the Adelaide Oval had been exactly a week back. Despite more than twice the number here, the noise wasn't as overwhelming, the buzz that is unique to an India-Pakistan match obviously missing. But the support from the stands was still unbelievably uplifting. The crowd can often be the unofficial 12th man in India; for Dhoni's lads to enjoy a similar luxury thousands of kilometres away from home, and from a number as large as this, was both special and unique.
"The attendance was close to 86,000 or 87,000. Let's give the benefit of the doubt, say there were 20,000 South African fans, but to get the support of over 50,000 people in Australia, it just adds to the atmosphere that gets created," said Dhoni by way of thanksgiving to the supporters. "It starts from the warm‑up, and after the national anthem, it just multiplies. It's always good to play in front of good support, and the kind of support we are talking about - even when we are playing in India, some of the stadiums even when full can hold 40,000 people. Today we are seeing in Australia more than 50,000 to 60,000 people supporting us. Definitely we need to give a lot of credit to them. It's really heartening to see people coming from all over, not only India, a lot of them are from Australia, they have come from England. It feels good to play in front of big crowds."
If AB de Villiers and his boys had set out to silence the crowd, they failed miserably in that attempt. De Villiers put on a brave front and said the fans had no role to play in the result, but that could only have been half-true.
"We didn't feel the occasion was too big for us, no," said de Villiers. "You've got to win games wherever you play in the world to be the best team in the world, if you want to be the best team in the world. It (the crowd) obviously plays a role for them. I think that they definitely got a bit of a boost feeling that they're playing at home with a lot of support. I felt like we had support, as well. It's definitely not an excuse. It shouldn't play a role, no."
But it does, and that is the beauty of team sport. The Indian team is supremely fortunate that no matter which corner of the world it plays in, it gets whole-hearted, unreserved and unconditional backing from its millions of fans. The supporters are aware that their side can't win every day, but if they can see the effort and if they can sense a fight, they come away happy. They are less forgiving than fans in India for whom nothing less than a victory is acceptable. And when the team turns virtuoso like it did on Friday, it catapults them to a heady space. No more than they deserve, surely.