When the smiles came flooding back to Chennai

The Chennai crowd found its full voice even if its hometown heroes didn’t perform to their usual standards

India beat England by an innings and 75 runs in the fifth Test at Chennai as Virat Kohli extended his run of consecutive Tests unbeaten to 18 and ended the year as captain of the No. 1 ranked Test team. Few believed this was going to happen.

Not just the result, as England began the final day with 10 wickets in hand and were playing on a pitch which produced just 17 wickets in four days, but also the fact that the game even took place after all the city had been through in the weeks leading up to the encounter.

During adversity, all it takes is a simple smile to make you forget everything that you have been through. In that regard, the fifth Test which sealed a 4-0 series triumph might have been just the thing that Chennai needed as it brought back the smiles to a city that had lost so much leading up to the Test.

The uncertain beginning

The clamour for Test cricket in Chennai was evident from the pace at which the tickets were being bought once the counters opened. In a city that is obsessed with its stars, it didn't take too long for everyone to gobble up the chance to watch their cricket stars in action.

The excitement was fever pitch and the enthusiasm of the fans was evident but they were dealt a body blow in early December with the death of Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, who had been in the hospital for over two months. There were doubts about whether the game would even take place.

A Ranji Trophy match which was scheduled to be played in Tamil Nadu had to be moved away as the state was in mourning and there were even murmurs that the game might be moved to Kolkata, if Chennai was unable to host the Test.

But like the city has always done, it bounced back. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association gave assurance to the BCCI about its ability to host the Test and things were back on track. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for too long as the city, which incurred the wrath of rain in December 2015, faced the worst cyclone in recent history.

Winds that were howling at speeds which would be deemed normal in a Test match by a fast bowler ravaged the city and plunged it into the depths of darkness. Not many thought a swift recovery was possible, considering that the Test was just a few days away.

As Chennai has shown time and time again, it bounced back. With the same resilience that India showed to win the series 4-0 despite losing four tosses and back-to-back matches by an innings despite conceding 400 in the first innings.

The long wait

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and perhaps that is why, after three years of waiting for a Test, the city showed that it didn't want to wait a day longer to give Virat Kohli's side the opportunity to create history.

And so it was, that barely days after cyclone Vardah uprooted thousands of trees, created havoc in the city and rendered it without power in many parts, the Test began on December 16 in front of thousands, almost as though nothing had happened.

Chennai, which boasted of two of India's most consistent performers in the longest format of the game, Murali Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin, could finally cheer their hometown heroes on. And even as large sections of the city struggled without electricity, an international game took place with impeccable precision.

If some thought that the damage done to the city might hamper the spirits of those that came to watch Ashwin and co. bowl, they couldn't have been more wrong. Despite everything that had happened in the days and weeks leading up to the game, the crowd were boisterous.

The atmosphere in the ground was electric and if you were lucky to be walking along the Marina beach in the afternoon, you could hear the roar every time Karun Nair hit a boundary or Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket.

Even if the hometown faithful couldn't get to savour the best that the local boys had to offer (Ashwin only picked up a wicket and Vijay was out cheaply), the crowd cheered every boundary and every wicket as if there was no tomorrow.

On the final day, even when the game was seemingly heading for a draw, the noise hadn't dissipated. The moment Alastair Cook fell, the crowd found its voice again and when Karun Nair pulled off a beauty to seal the victory, sheer joy was evident as far as the eye could see inside the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.

Sport not only has the power to unite people but also bring joy to a place that had almost forgotten what that feeling was like. And for the lucky few inside the stadium, watching India clinch another innings victory, they experienced it firsthand as the smiles came flooding back to Chennai.