India vs England 2021: Record crowd attend first T20

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, March 13: The first T20 International between India and England at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad possibly saw the largest crowd at a venue ever since the sport resumed post coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown with as many as 57,000 people attending it, claims the local body -- Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA).

However the match ended in disappointment for the home crowd as India were thrashed by eight wickets by the visiting England side.

The second of the five-match series (all of which will be played at the same venue) will be held on Sunday.

While there have been matches in various stadiums around the world with limited crowd capacity, none has been able to so far match the attendance at the Motera stadium thanks to its sheer capacity -- it has a capacity of 1,10,000 out of which GCA has allowed 50 per cent attendance.

"We had 52,000 official admission through turnstile (tickets). There were 3,000-4,000 complimentary tickets. The rest were police and volunteers, bringing the total to about 57,000," GCA joint secretary Anil Patel was quoted as saying by the IANS news agency.

Another official said that the demand for low priced tickets were more.

"Most of the crowd bought tickets at the low-end, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. There was less demand for high-end tickets," added the official.

The first international game to witness spectators was the Australia-New Zealand women's limited-overs series that began in Brisbane in late September, 2020.

Men's cricket began witnessing crowds from November-end with crowds being allowed in New Zealand and Australia. However, those were only limited capacities.

The Virat Kohli-led Men in Blue will be hoping to bounce back in the second T20 on Sunday. Vice-captain Rohit Sharma will miss the second game as well as the Mumbaikar has been rested as part of the workload management.