How Centurion crowd turned from blue to shade of saffron

• In Bangalore, police opened fire on Monday to disperse two clashing groups. Prohibitory orders had been clamped in three police stations limits on Sunday

• Several people were injured as people on both sides of the border hurled stones during the retreat ceremony at the border post at Hussainiwala.

Even when you win, you lose. The fallout of India’s victory over Pakistan here two days ago is still being felt back home. And, though tensions at Centurion have now subsided, it could so easily have gone out of hand here as well.

The crowd’s behaviour — and the Indian fans were largely guilty — wasn’t confined, as usual, to good-humoured jokes connecting Inzamam and potatoes. For the first time, there was direct and overt reference to religion, accompanied by fisticuffs and abuses.

The police were forced to step in and, after ejecting quite a few spectators early on, eventually arrested eight people to keep the peace.

This, despite the attempts by both teams before the match to play down the significance. Saurav Ganguly had, in fact, issued a directive to his teammates to tone down their celebrations lest it incite passions.

He needn’t have bothered. Indeed, it seemed some people had come with the intention of doing anything but watch a cricket match. One section of the crowd had fans dressed as sadhus, saffron kurtas and fake beards; a banner identified them as members of the ‘Baba Amarnath Mandal’ in Borivili.

While a large number had the Tricolour, there were also those who were waving saffron flags — such as those flown at temples. And one Tricolour had ‘Ashok Singhal Zindabad’ written in the middle white field.

You could, perhaps, avoid looking at the scenes but you couldn’t avoid listening to the chanting. The standard was ‘Ganpati Bappa Moria’, led by actor Nana Patekar. But every now and then one could also hear ‘Har Har Mahadev’ (possibly by the same man holding up a giant placard of Bal Thackeray).

The situation was the worst in the stadium’s Hill area, where Pakistan’s popular cheering leader Cricket Chacha with his Green Army was situated — obviously by a ticket clerk with a mordant sense of humour — next to a huge support band from India.

And every time a shot was hit, the Hill erupted in abuses and slogan-shouting.

Towards the end, as alcohol mingled with the heady brew of impending victory, empty beer bottles were thrown across the great divide, with similar replies.