London: India fans thronged The Oval in large numbers to back Virat Kohli's Team India during their big-ticket ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 clash against Australia in London on Sunday.
Passionate fans, wearing the blue jersey, filled The Oval, hours ahead of the start of India-Australia match. Thousands of Indian supporters queued up to get inside the iconic cricket ground to make sure they got to their seats before the first ball was bowled.
As the television cameras panned across The Oval stands, a sea of blue greeted with a little bit of yellow sprinkled in between.
The 25,000-capacity Oval Stadium in South London was filled to the brim and as many as 20,000 tickets were bought by Indians.
Former Australia batsman-turned commentator, Michael Slater acknowledged the massive support for Team India, saying he would take a break from his commentary duties to distribute some yellow shirts among the crowd.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan came up with a cheeky tweet, marvelling the support for Team India in London.
"So far I have seen 33 Aussie supporters in the Ground at the Oval and that includes the Team and support staff ... !!!!"
Asian teams are expected to have massive support throughout the World Cup.
India captain Virat Kohli had said the crowd support is a "huge matter of pride" for the former champions and that they would be trying to use it to their advantage.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) also got in the act as it posted a photo of the stands and asked its Twitter followers if they could spot any Australian supporters.
While Indian fans thoroughly enjoyed the dig, some Australian fans tried to defend the state of affairs at The Oval.
"It's lovely to be here. We have such a huge fan base in England. The number of people travelling from home as well. It's great to see at every stadium we play at, at least 50 per cent of the crowd is Indian fans. For us, that's a thing of pressure but a thing of pride as well. Hopefully, we have got to use to the crowd support to our advantage," Kohli had said during the World Cup opening ceremony.
Kohli stops fans from booing Smith
Steve Smith and David Warner have had to face the brunt of the fans for their wrong-doings. The fans in England have been constantly booing at them and putting them into an uncomfortable situation. When Australia took on India in London, the situation was no different for the former Australian skipper. Steve Smith was sent to field at the deep near the boundary line at the Vauxhall end. Immediately, the Indian contingent present in the stands started booing at the Australian.
They shouted at him referring to him as a ‘cheater’. Indian skipper Virat Kohli on noticing this took action immediately. He actually turned to that stand and gestured at the crowd not to boo at Smith. Instead, he signalled at them asking to clap for Steve Smith winning the hearts of the fans. It was great to see the Indian skipper express concern for his Australian counterpart and the fans absolutely loved it. Something of this sorts, coming from Virat, was unexpected and even took a few by surprise.
