Eden turns into Wankhede
The Kolkata crowd backed Mumbai in the qualifier

The last we've seen on Dravid? • AFP
I was in Kolkata for a while so I thought it would be a good idea to watch the qualifier since I have not seen many IPL knockout games from the stadium. The only other one I attended was in 2010 when Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore at the DY Patil Stadium.
I'll be backing Mumbai in the final because I spend most of my time in the city. I believe the loser of the first qualifier will eventually win the tournament, and since I have proclaimed that to many people I want my theory to work out.
Both Harbhajan Singh and Dwayne Smith played their roles. Harbhajan stifled the Royals batting by taking wickets at regular intervals, a couple of catches and hitting the winning runs in a tense chase. He also gets additional points for his dancing and wild celebrations. Smith anchored the chase smartly and upped the ante when required.
It would have been great if the match had ended in a tie. I have never watched a Super Over live.
The mood of the evening was set in the third over when Rahul Dravid and Mitchell Johnson got in each other's faces. Later, James Faulkner had a collision with Smith, but the match-up that got the stadium quietly tense was when Rohit Sharma walked in to bat with Mumbai needing 41 from 35 balls. Rohit was beaten by his first ball and the bowler, Kevon Cooper, had a few words to say. Rohit defended the next three balls as well and Cooper glared at him every time. It was turning out to be a wicket-maiden, but Rohit managed to steal a single off the last ball. Throughout the incident, Rohit stayed calm and collected, unlike some of his Indian team-mates.
Kieon Pollard was easily the most popular Mumbai player on the field and got huge cheers whenever he came near the boundary. Brad Hodge was near the boundary as well and was teased a bit when he dropped a catch off Rayudu.
When it seemed certain that Mumbai were going to win, needing six off five balls, Shane Watson knocked off Ambati Rayudu's stumps and silenced nearly all of Eden, which was rooting for Mumbai throughout. In came Rishi Dhawan, who has hardly batted in the tournament, and scooped Watson over short fine leg for four. The audacity and confidence that Dhawan showed in the execution of the shot was astounding given the fact that it could have easily been a Misbah-type misadventure.
A couple of shots in the 20th over of Royals innings stood out. Dishant Yagnik flicked one from behind the stumps to get a boundary, and a few wides later, Hodge backed away to a Malinga yorker and steered the ball through backward point for four. Hodge's shot was stunning since the ball had been a near-perfect yorker.
Eden Gardens looked about 60-70% full. The crowd was bored at the beginning, because of the delayed start, then gradually came to its feet with the Royals innings taking off smoothly. In the last over of the match, most fans were standing on their toes.
The toilets ranked between strictly okay and filthy, there was plenty of drinking water, and getting in and out of the stadium was quite easy thanks to the strict vigilance by the police.
The usual IPL songs and Hindi film songs were played. There were some fireworks at the beginning of both innings through which the umpires and players emerged on to the field.
Both of them have their own charm. I still probably prefer ODIs since there is more time to soak in the stadium atmosphere. In a Twenty20 game, everything happens too quickly.
There is no comparison between the two. Cricket is best watched from the ground. Television can never create the overall atmosphere that a ground creates.
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Saurav Dey is a creative consultant but prefers to spend most of his time watching cricket. He believes that cricket is best watched from the grounds and hopes to cover all the Test and ODI venues in the world someday and write a book about them. He also aspires to create his own "Bharat Army" and travel around the world.