Fans hit party mode as Team India breaches Aussie fortress

KOLKATA: As Rishabh Pant drove Hazlewood and the ball rolled all the way to the boundary rope, sealing a famous series victory for injury-ridden

Team

India, Indians in

Australia

burst into celebrations. While those present at the

Gabba

in

Brisbane

went delirious, thousands of Indians settled across various cities of the continent got ready to celebrate through the night, for what they claimed was the greatest Indian victory Down Under since the 1985 World Championship of Cricket win.

Melbourne-based Australian Rules footballer Sudip Chakraborty said he was overjoyed with this victory. “What a turnaround! Indians in Australia are thrilled,” said Chakraborty, a community officer at Essendon Football Club. Recalling the famous 2001 series win in India, he said he was lucky to have watched both the series live. Chakraborty cheered from the stands at MCG when India won the second Test match to square the series in December.

“Personally, I am thrilled to have attended both the series 20 years apart. There were non-stop banter and sledging on work groups through text messages throughout the series and especially after the Adelaide Test. However, I was quite confident of our new players and am glad that our boys let the bat and the ball do the talking,” said the youngster. He added that he took out his Indian Footy team jersey after three years and did his usual 5km run wearing it around the streets of Melbourne after the win.

“Hopefully, Australian cricketers realize that sledging and non-cricketing taunts don’t work on modern day Indians and they should rather focus on the game,” felt Chakraborty, who was born and brought up in Kolkata.

Basudeb Ghosh, who is a senior executive looking after quality control in Melbourne, said the historic feat in Brisbane made every Indian proud. “The way net bowlers bowled Australians out twice in their backyard is unbelievable. The novice team fought like tigers and did not give an inch away. Before the match, almost everybody had written off the team as second-string India facing the Aussies on one of the bounciest wickets in the world where the host team has not lost in 30 years,” he remarked.

A Singh, a student in Australia said he will party the whole night to celebrate the win and thanked Indian cricketers for making the Aussies ‘shut up’. “We have played much better cricket with a second-string side after being written off following Kohli’s departure. This win just shows that India are no longer pushovers in Australian conditions. In fact, we are now dominating here,” Singh said.

“Really thankful to the Indian cricket team for this exhilarating feeling. To do this on the trot on Australian soil speaks volumes about the grit and character of the team. Amazing, excellent and I am a very proud Indian tonight,” said Biswajit Mitra, a software engineer in Melbourne.

Chakraborty agreed and said that other than the excitement, it was indeed satisfying to have won the ‘banter contest’ that has been on between Australian fans and Indians since the start of the series in November. “Many of those who are going berserk with joy tonight have Australian passports. But they are very Indian at heart,” he added.