The Nawabs celebrate

The City of Nawabs was in celebration mood as never before. And it had reasons to be so. After a wait of over seven decades, the state was u...

The City of Nawabs was in celebration mood as never before. And it had reasons to be so. After a wait of over seven decades, the state was ultimately able to lay hands at the prestigious Ranji Trophy and that too in the state capital.

Sensing a UP triumph, going by the proceedings of the previous day, a big but tehzeebyafta (disciplined) crowd turned up to be a witness to the golden moment of UP cricket.

They cheered the players on every good shot. Every run coming from Kaif’s bat received a thunderous applause. The moment Kaif completed his century with a boundary off Ranadeb Bose towards covers, they stood up in appreciation clapping for quite sometime thereafter.

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When he was ultimately caught at mid-wicket on an individual score of 109, things seemed to have come at a standstill for a few moments and there was silence all around but soon people realised that the way of UP victory has already been paved and the Allahabad player received a standing ovation till he reached the dressing room.

The home team finally was all out for 342 runs and the all-important first innings lead in their favour. With Bengal facing an uphill task of collecting 357 runs in 43 overs, it was obvious that the match was heading towards a draw and UP emerging champions by virtue of the first innings lead.

But things had an interesting end when Kaif started gesturing towards the crowd to keep on the tempo. The crowd felt absolutely delighted to see their star paying so much of attention to them and it broke into a celebration mood. While Kaif had to air-dash to Delhi for the upcoming ODI series in Pakistan, the spectators too wanted the moment to come as soon as possible