Mayhem engulfs Kolkata as Proteas and India set for heated clash

There’s a natural hum in the Bengali capital.

Car horns mix with people shouting, music blaring, dogs barking and all around general mayhem. And that’s before the cricket even starts, which just makes everything louder.

Team India jetted into the city on Friday before Sunday’s highly anticipated World Cup match against South Africa at the storied Eden Gardens.

The historic venue remains, no matter what they build elsewhere, the spiritual home of Indian cricket. And it is getting ready for an epic parade on Sunday. 

The Proteas know what’s coming; some such as Quinton de Kock see it as “just another game”, but Marco Jansen is nervous. 

“I’m nervous, but everyone has a bit of nerves,” said 23-year-old Jansen. “It’s going to be loud.” 

That it will be, for it usually is, but the volume will go up several notches on Sunday. India has qualified for the semifinals, so has South Africa, which has removed much of the playoff peril for both teams. However, they are no 1 and 2 in the competition.

The hosts have dominated, with bat and ball throughout the past month. Rohit Sharma is calmness personified at the top of the order, Young Turks Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer came to the fore against Sri Lanka on Thursday, while the bowling unit, led by the mesmerising skill of Jasprit Bumrah, has been unplayable. 

And then there is Virat Kohli. Only De Kock has scored more runs than “King Kohli” at this tournament. He dominates every print publication, all the online interaction, the TV and the taxi talk. 

Kohli is chasing his 49th ODI century, which should he achieve it, would see him match his idol Sachin Tendulkar. The Kohli “quest for 49" and then 50 tour has been in full effect since he notched up his 48th against Bangladesh two weeks ago, with a bit of help from umpire Richard Kettelborough.

Sunday is also Kohli’s birthday. He will turn 35. Sadly for the 70,000 who will attend the match, much of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s (CAB) festivities have been cancelled — most likely at the request of Kohli and the Indian team.

The CAB was planning to hand out 70,000 Kohli masks, there was also going to be a cake cutting ceremony on the outfield (the cake apparently has a design “that will be something everyone identifies with Virat Kohli,” according to a local official) and fireworks. 

However, local media reported the masks are no more, the cake will be handed to the birthday boy in a private ceremony, though the fireworks will remain.

The build-up has been overshadowed somewhat by a ticketing scandal, with members of the CAB not getting the tickets they believe they are entitled to for the big occasion, while seven arrests have reportedly also been made after people were reportedly caught illegally selling tickets.

Sourav Ganguly, Kolkata’s favourite son and former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, has been roped in to resolve the matter. 

The Indian team see Sunday’s clash as their biggest test in the round-robin phase. “I don’t think they have many weaknesses, that’s why they are top of the log and have won every game,” said De Kock. “Maybe a bad game can happen, that might be the only thing, though I don’t see that happening.”

While the Indians are accustomed to the adulation and general fervour around them, it will be a first taste of it for many of the Proteas players. Their strategy which has operated so smoothly will receive its biggest test yet, not just from how they deal with a crowd — that will be against them — but how they implement their blueprint against a team that is so skilful and running high on confidence. 

Jansen, who has taken 16 wickets in the tournament, is aware he needs to strike the right balance in the hype to be successful.

“If you go too far one way — in seeing it as a play-off, then, definitely for me, I get nervous and jittery and I start thinking thoughts that could affect the way I play,” he said. 

“On the other side, if you are too relaxed, for myself, I get caught off guard. So you try to go into a game somewhere in the middle, so that you are up for it and in a position to do your best.”

Jansen admits he can get lost in his own head. “I think quite a lot, my teammates know ‘Marco likes to think'. My old man is here and he knows how to calm me down. 

“I’ll be in my room and, to be honest, I’ll try not to do too much, because then I start thinking and my mind goes all over the place, so whether I watch Netflix or a sermon, as long as I do something that calms me down and makes me relax, I’ll be all right.”