It was a fitting climax to what will go down as one of the most entertaining Cricket World Cups in history and there was no better place to watch it than in Mumbai itself.

You didn’t have to be at a stadium to find a vibe, you didn’t have to be an Indian supporter to know how much this meant to India and you certainly didn’t need any clichés talking about scripts and fairytale endings to dictate how Saturday was going to pan out.

From the second India beat Australia in the second quarterfinal and ensured that they would face Pakistan in the semi-final at Mohali, the entire cricketing world was abuzz. Immediately the game gained a number of monikers – “the greatest match ever”, “the mother of all games”, “the final before the final”. There was intense discussion across social media as fans from both sides plotted on how to get tickets for the game and how to get to Mohali for the match. Face paint and body paint was prepared and war cries sounded out all over the internet.

Saturday 12 March was exactly five years to the day since South Africa completed that run chase against Australia. The ghost of 438-9 past came to visit the India and Proteas clash in Nagpur as the World Cup continued to entertain while supporters continued to age about 10 year. Omens all-round.

India won the toss and chose to bat. No surprises, really. And, as expected, it was the Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar show as the two combined for a first-wicket partnership of 142. Tendulkar notched up his 99th international hundred (that’s in both Tests and ODIs).

World Cup 2011, Group B: Match 1
India: 370/4 (Sehwag 175, Kohli 100*) beat Bangladesh: 283/9 (Iqbal 70, Shakib 55, M Patel 4-48) by 87 runs.

The Proteas went into the final ODI at SuperSport Centurion on the back of fantastic support by the South African public. Every ODI in this series has been played in front of capacity crowd and the Centurion fans maintained this form with a sell out of 20 000 spectators.

The pressure was on the Proteas and Graeme Smith as this was both his last home ODI as captain and the last ODI for the team ahead of the world cup.

Sold out on the round about

Driving around Ring Street for the 3rd time I eventually found parking, this is the normal procedure when visiting St Georges Park with sold out seating. The weather was awesome aside from a moderate breeze and the line by the entrance was already extending out onto the street...this match was going to be a cracker!

Power Play!?