Potatoes in our curry tonight

Match - India vs Ireland

Venue - Seddon Park, Hamilton

The excitement, the fervor, the enthusiasm, the joy , everything was there for a cricket fan in me. The match obviously was secondary, but it was still going to be a lifetime experience to enjoy a World Cup match in New Zealand.

After a long trip from all the way midwest, US to New Zealand, the weather was a welcome change, From frenzy cold to summer hot. I love summer.The hot day at Seddon park was perfectly set for a match which was very important for Ireland.India was already in quarter finals and thought they will take this match easily. 

Moment of the match - When Virat Kohli on third man boundary to field. All Indian fans went berserk in that corridor of the stadium. "Jeetegi bhai Jeetegi, Anushka Jeetegi" started buzzing everywhere. As always Virat has that arrogant look on his face and don't really care about his fans or spectators. 

Fan Moment of the match - When it is an India match, you can expect a sold out crowd. Indians are cricket crazy we know it. If I can travel all the way from US to watch India match, you can imagine the local Indians staying in New Zealand and Australia coming to watch the match. On the ground, there were like 95% Indians and rest were Ireland fans. Such was a dominance of sound of Indian fans was that Irish fans were dancing to Bhangra songs all the time. During all the crazy crowd, an Indian fan lost his wallet somewhere , but an Irish fan ran after him and returned to the wallet to Indian fan. Great gesture. 

Hamilton & Seddon Park Experience - No doubt,  New Zealand is my favorite country. From childhood, the cricket matches in New Zealand were exciting. They used to start in early morning in India and will go till 11 AM or 12 PM. The grounds were always exotic and very people friendly. Open spaces to sit anywhere you want. I always adored that part of cricket experience that you should be allowed to sit anywhere. Seddon Park is hell of a picturesque stadium with just around 12000-13000 capacity. But it's beautiful around sunset time.

 

Memory of  lifetime - Definitely one trip to New Zealand is not enough to appreciate New Zealand completely. I will be back , baby. But the experience in Hamilton has left me spell bound and I hope to explore rest of New Zealand in my next trip. The below picture is of Hobbiton where the movies LOTR and The Hobbit have been shot. The Hobbiton lies in close to a town called Matamata which is an hour drive from Hamilton.