Sailing the port city
For the hosts, the Chittagong-leg of the ICC World Twenty20 was ideally supposed to play second fiddle to that of Dhaka, with all of Bangladesh's Super 10s matches taking place at Mirpur. In addition to the Tigers, the general public's most common fallback teams -- India and Pakistan -- also feature in the capital and as a result Dhaka was expected to be the centre stage of the competition.
However, a week into the mega event and it seems as though Chittagong -- from Dale Steyn's sorcery to the availability of noble ticket-donors -- in a way has managed to be the more happening World Cup venue and here are a few reasons why:
STEYN'S SORCERY
On Monday, the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium hosted what was perhaps the most thrilling contest of the tournament so far. New Zealand and South Africa fought neck and neck for most parts of the match and at the end of the day it was Steyn's superior pace power that made the difference. With the Kiwis requiring a comfortable seven runs off the last over, Steyn came in and bowled a kind of over that the Chittagonian spectators rarely gets to see and took the Proteas home amidst an applauding crowd.
STUART'S 'LIGHTNING' SNIPE
When Stuart Broad, following England's nine-run defeat to New Zealand in a rain-curtailed game, criticised umpires for not calling off the match in the fourth over, at which time a few strikes of lightning had hit and would have put out the D-L equation, there was a brief moment of silence in the post-match press conference. It seemed as though journalists were trying to figure out if Broad was actually being serious. As disappointing as a D-L defeat may be, slating umpires for not calling off a game before it started raining; well that was a first.
HOLLAND'S 'TABLE TENNIS' DILEMMA
Dutch captain Peter Borren did not have many words to explain the fall from breaking the Powerplay record in Sylhet to getting bundled out for the lowest ever T20 International score. Regardless of the defeat, they are bound to continue with their intense table tennis rivalries, which according to their manager, has been the players' main pastime. "It would have been nice had the ICC let us out of the hotel. Nevertheless I thank them for the table," he smirked.
'NOBLE' TICKET-SELLERS
That the ICC's website has not been the only source for tickets is a fact that many have learnt as the dates of the tournament came closer. Here too, the port city seems to fare better than Dhaka. While a Tk 50 ticket was sold at an average of Tk 1,000 in the capital, in Chittagong it ranged around the Tk 400 mark. Even better, with the apparent non-interest in non-Bangladeshi games, some have even started selling the tickets at their face values on facebook.
OVER-BOOKED HOTELS
It's not often that one finds it difficult to book hotels in the port city. However, ever since the T20 World Cup, Chittagong has been hosting people from all over the world. That the sought-after hotels at the GEC Circle had stopped booking rooms until last Sunday, depicted the rush. There was even a group of unfortunate Irish supporters, who decided to make things count, despite their team's exit, by leaving for Cox's Bazar.
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