A Calcuttan now based in Canada, who was at Dubai International Cricket Stadium with his wife and another couple to watch Sunday’s match, said being at the stadium for an India-Pakistan match is the most exciting experience for him.

It was even more thrilling to see Virat Kohli become the fastest batter to score 14,000 ODI runs.

Lavi Gidwani, who runs a finance brokerage firm in Edmonton, Canada, was at the stadium with his wife Neha Batra. The couple and their friends Atul Omkar, a lawyer originally from Delhi, and his wife Chitra Omkar, were also at the T-20 World Cup match between the two countries in June 2024 in the US, a thriller which India won by six runs.

“The atmosphere at the Dubai stadium on Sunday was electrifying. Initially, in the afternoon, when we entered the stadium before the match, the crowd was thin because of the heat. But as the sun started setting, the crowd started gathering. In the evening, it was a full house and as noisy as it is at the Eden Gardens,” Gidwani told The Telegraph from Dubai.

The group of four flew to Dubai just to watch the match and will return to Canada on Monday night.

“At the match in New York last year, the crowd size was much less compared to Dubai. Also, the character of the crowd is different here. Most people in the stands in New York were from North America. But here, they are mostly from India and Pakistan. The emotion and excitement are different,” said Gidwani. He lived on Chowringhee before moving to Canada a few years back.

Like India dominated the match, Indian supporters outnumbered Pakistan supporters in the stands, Gidwani said.

“In Dubai, the added bonus was to watch Kohli touch the 14,000 runs milestone and score a century. It was an honour to watch him achieve this,” he said.

“We have been at almost all the cities in India where we played Pakistan. We have been in Dubai earlier, too, once.”

Gidwani, however, said he would have been happy if the match had been played in Pakistan.

“I was disappointed to know India will not play the match in Pakistan. I am a Sindhi and my ancestors are from Pakistan. The match would have given me the opportunity to visit my ancestral place,” he said.

Getting tickets and flying to Dubai were not easy for the two couples.

“There was a huge rush online for the tickets compared to the match in New York. The price this time was also much higher,” said Gidwani. He had waited hoping the price would go down but it did not.

They bought each ticket for 9,000 Canadian dollars or around ₹5.5 lakh. The price of a ticket for the New York match was 1,500 Canadian dollars or around ₹91,000.

“Also, we were to take a flight to Dubai from Toronto on February 17. But because of the Delta Connection Flight crash, our flight was cancelled. We had to stay in Toronto for a day as we were rebooked on Tuesday’s flight,” said Gidwani.

But he did not mind.

“We enjoyed India’s domination. I am a huge fan of Jasprit Bumrah but since he was not there, I rooted for Kohli and Rohit Sharma, my two other favourites,” he said.

When India was fielding, the most exciting moment for the group was the dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan for 46 when he was bowled out by Axar Patel. “I think that was the turning point of the match. If Rizwan had stayed till the end, Pakistan could have reached near 300,” Gidwani said.

The group was thrilled when Sharma started hitting during India’s run chase but was soon disappointed when he was out scoring 20 off 14 balls. But Kohli compensated for it.