One of the talking points in the first match of the World Cup 2023, the ENG vs NZ match, in Ahmedabad, was how empty the Narendra Modi Stadium looked for the first half of the match.
When the match of ENG VS NZ started on Thursday at 2 PM, about 80-85 percent of the stadium was empty. Fans wondered about conspiracy theories because most of the stadium tickets had been sold by the ticket seller. Yet the first game of this epic tournament was under the threat of being played in a stadium mostly empty.
However, the organisers, the BCCI and the ICC, must have felt relieved when the stands started to fill up in the second innings of the match, and according to some fans present in the stadium, they said about 35,000 to 40,000 fans attended the second half of the match.
This made it clear that because of Thursday being a working day and the high heat during the daytime the fans didn’t come early in the afternoon. But the seats began to fill up by evening and it was noisy during the New Zealand innings when Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra led their side to a thumping 9-wicket win over England, the defending champions.
Earlier, some Pakistani fans had been trolling the BCCI for the empty seats at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. As the seats started getting occupied, Indian fans hit back with funny tweets, saying that 30 percent of the capacity at the Narendra Modi Stadium is the entire capacity of stadiums in Lahore and Multan.
Here are tweets of Indian fans hitting back at Pakistanis:
New Zealand defeated England by 9 wickets, gunning down the target of 283 runs in only 36.2 overs, which is set to put a massive dent to England’s NRR. Conway remained unbeaten on 152 and Ravindra on 123, the pair adding a colossal partnership of 273 runs in 211 balls.
Player of the match, Rachin Ravindra said, “Great to have a great day. Boys bowled and fielded well to restrict them to 280. Luckily I had Devon out there to show me how to do it. (I am) Very very close with Devon. Special to finish it off with him. 4-5 years ago, we all knew Devon would become the player he is. Above all he’s a great guy. It was yesterday (because of) the thing (niggle) with Lockie (when did he know he’ll bat at three?). Good to get the opportunity. We’ll see what happens. I’m actually quite a good sleeper luckily. There was some swing, but the surface was really good to bat on.”
