The Eden Gardens filled up on Thursday almost at the pace Rohit Sharma scored his runs.

When the two captains went out for the toss, Eden was a sea of green and white chairs. Veterans in the Cricket Association of Bengal were wondering if the haloed arena was doomed to create a dubious record on what should have been a historic day.

This, after all, was the match to mark Eden’s 150 years. And there were barely 500 people in the stands.

In the next three hours and 45 minutes, the story changed. And how! When Rohit Sharma raised his bat on the way back to the clubhouse, there were about 45,000 people in the stands.

He waved his bat around in acknowledgement. The roar seemed so Eden.

Vikash Barui couldn’t contain his excitement. He had left office, a financial services firm, around 3.30pm and rushed to Eden around 4pm. Rohit was on song. He had scored 143 by then.

“I have only been here an over. I have already seen a six and a four. I should have caught this innings from the start,” gushed 27-year-old Vikash, adding that he half sprinted to the stadium from Esplanade Metro station.

At least Vikash got to see Rohit giving the final brutal touches to his epic innings. Actor Abir Chatterjee gave vent to his frustration of not being at Eden on Twitter: “Wht was tht @ImRo45 ?264 in a limited over match! insane.. jst whn am out of my city #EdenGardens experiences smthing so special! unbelievable!”

Some Eden veterans felt sad nevertheless that it took a special innings to pull in the crowds on what should anyway have been a special day for the stadium.

Some remembered the good ol’ days when Eden used to fill up for any team. Even a New Zealand-Zimbabwe match of the 1987 World Cup was played before some 80,000 people.

Rajib Sengupta, who has been visiting Eden since he was five years old, reached Block D just after the toss on Thursday. He had expected the block to be near full then, but to his amazement there were no more than 50 people around in that part of the stadium.

“I could keep my umbrella open for more than an hour, which is unthinkable at Eden. Only much later, when word must have spread about Rohit’s innings, did people start coming in a rush. There were so few spectators before the Rohit blitzkrieg that we could keep our belongings on three chairs,” said the 40-year-old.

Mukut Paul had come to the ground alone with an extra ticket in his pocket. He called a friend after Rohit thumped the air on reaching 50 (off 72 balls with a strike rate of 69.4) on his comeback to the team after three months. Mukut told his friend that he had a ticket to spare and invited him to the stadium for the rest of the match. The friend politely refused.

By the time Rohit had blasted his way to 200 off 151 balls, Mukut’s phone was ringing every few seconds. His spare ticket had suddenly become much-sought-after.

He stopped taking the calls after a while. “Every time I blink, I miss a big hit or a partnership record or something,” Mukut said.

The listless performance of the Sri Lankans in the last three games and the fact that the series had already been decided were some of the possible reasons for the low turnout at the start of the match.

“You can talk of the advantages of watching the match on TV at home and how getting a day off from work has become a tougher proposition. But these things have been there for some time and Eden would still fill up,” said a former Bengal player.

Rohit changed the story — of the match and of Eden.

As the view of the chairs on the stands flanking the High Court End was replaced by the usual sea of heads, the Eden roar reverberated louder with every Rohit shot. What had looked like a damp squib on a landmark day was now poised to end on a high.

The first to fill up was Block G, bang opposite the clubhouse. Then E, D, F and even the upper tiers.

By the 35th over (Rohit on 132 and India on 220), the crowd was game for a Mexican wave. The numbers were still not enough for an Eden wave, but the attempt wasn’t a bad one.

Those in two minds about whether to come to Eden or not had been either watching the match on TV, live streaming on their mobile phones and tablets or just checking the score at regular intervals.

“I had planned to come only if India batted second. But when Rohit started hitting out after his century, I and my friend decided to make a dash for the stadium,” said Sukhankar Ghosh, a third-year BCom student who had a tuition class to attend at Jadavpur with his friend Subir Bhandari.

Ankit Keshri, 21, was supposed to be in the stands with his brother Rohan, 25, who was at work. Ankit kept calling his brother every two or three overs, giving him updates and begging him to finish his work fast.

Anant Desai, who runs a business near Poddar Court, said he started getting “frantic calls” from some of his employees watching the match, telling him that he would be sorry he missed the action.

That was when Rohit had jumped a few gears.

His first 100 had come at a strike rate of 100. Then he started going after every ball and the remaining 164 runs came off barely 72 balls at a strike rate of 277, almost three runs per ball.

“People were coming in all the time but the crowd was not really growing till the 30th over (around 3.50pm). But when everybody stood up for Rohit’s 200 (in the 46th over), I realised that it was a near full house,” said 67-year-old Loknath Chowdhury.

Rohit, who admitted later that he was responsible for Virat Kohli’s run out, even made inroads into his captain’s fan territory. “I am completely crazy about Virat Kohli. But I will buy an India shirt with Rohit written at the back tomorrow,” said Akansha Paul, a Class XI student of DPS Newtown who was in Block B.

Akansha’s classmate Deepabali Bhattacharjee switched allegiance completely, saying she was “probably more a Rohit fan” after three-and-a-half hours at Eden on Thursday.

Is Rohit Sharma’s innings the best ODI knock you have watched at Eden? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com