'USA! USA! USA!' - Chepauk finds a new love on Valentine's Day eve

There are murals all around the Chepauk. Of the epic tied Test of 1986, of Chepauk's favourite son R Ashwin and its favourite adopted son MS Dhoni. There's also this mural of Pakistan's lap of honour after winning the famous 1999 Test against India, at this very venue. The mural memorialises not only Pakistan's spectacular win but also the Chennai crowd's outpouring of love for the victors.

Chennai has always had a rich history for being a sporting crowd. Generations come and generations go, but Chennai continues that tradition. During the 2023 ODI World Cup, many turned up sporting Babar Azam jerseys. After Afghanistan toppled Pakistan, their fans took to the streets and celebrated with the Chennai locals.

Three years later, Chennai did its thing once again. Except this was a game involving two Associate nations - USA and Netherlands. No major global stars were in action, but still around 20,000 fans turned up at Chepauk and turned this game into an absolute spectacle. To the extent that USA spinner Harmeet Singh, the Player of the Match, who was born in Mumbai and has Indian roots, was taken aback.

This was also a Friday where a number of Tamil movies hit the screens - Chennai is big on its movie culture - so the fans might have been forgiven for popping into the popular Sathyam and Devi Cinemas in the vicinity of Chepauk rather than into Chepauk itself. Match tickets for this game started from INR 250, which is roughly the same as a movie ticket in Chennai. Many fans chose cricket and fell in love with the USA team, appropriately on the eve of Valentine's Day.

Chants of "USA!USA!USA!" regularly rang around the ground. The chants swelled to a crescendo when Shadley van Schalkwyk sealed USA's first-ever T20I win against Netherlands at 10.06pm.

"I was really surprised actually! I wasn't expecting this big a turn up today," Harmeet said at his post-match press conference half-an-hour later. "And of course I know how passionate Chennai people are for the game. I think especially when we see our family supporting us and everybody in the house [gets] behind us, it gives a huge boost. I think the fans out there, kudos to them.

"We're really grateful that they're coming out in such numbers and chanting 'USA'. We're earning fans around the world. So, it's a big step forward from cricket in America and we are sort of becoming like an underdog favourite, so I'm enjoying this and It's always a really nice battle out there."

From 10,783 at the start of the game, the crowd had almost doubled by the end. Among the crowd were the family and friends of USA left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige, who turned up wearing Kenjige's jersey (No. 64). They had travelled from Bengaluru, where Kenjige has his roots, in anticipation of Kenjige playing his first game in this T20 World Cup. Kenjige got his opportunity and had his family and friends exploding in joy when he struck with his very first ball.

"I couldn't be there for my brother's first World Cup in the US because I couldn't get off from work," Nirankush Kenjige, Nosthush's brother, said. "I missed his tied match against Pakistan, which was a once in a lifetime thing. After that, I wanted to be here, it's closer to home and I have brought all my friends, cousins and family here. I'm a lawyer... I shouldn't be saying this but I took off from work (laughs).

"We all drove down from Bangalore this morning and it's totally worth it. Most of us have played cricket with Nosh and I have memories of giving a lot of throwdowns to him - almost 300 balls a day. We were all just rooting for him and the USA. We plan to be around for the Namibia game too and hope the USA win that too. It's magical to be here."

The magic was in the air even after the end of the game. Around an hour later, Kenjige's family and friends stood in front of Pattabiraman Gate and clicked group pictures, soaking in USA's win.

Some special love, of course, was reserved for USA's boys who play for Texas Super Kings, the sister franchise of Chennai Super Kings, in MLC. When Saiteja Mukkamalla pumped Kyle Klein over extra-cover to bring up a 30-ball half-century, Chennai celebrated with him. The DJ even belted out a rousing song of actor Vijay - numbers of Vijay and Rajinikanth are usually reserved for the top CSK players.

After absorbing lessons from the likes of Faf du Plessis and Stephen Fleming at TSK, Mukkamalla got a taste of CSK fanfare. The 21-year-old wowed the Chennai crowd with his strokeplay, especially on the off side. The crowd then got behind Shubham Ranjane, who plays for both TSK in MLC and Joburg Super Kings in the SA20.

Mohammad Mohsin, who is also a Super King at Texas, felt like this was a home game, especially when Mukkamalla and Ranjane were on song.

"To be honest, it actually felt like a home game for us," Mohsin said. "The way the crowd turned up and the way they were chanting for us, it was quite amazing to see. Especially supporting us - the TSK boys. It was so nice and it actually felt like a home game for me at least."

Chepauk and cricket: a match made in heaven. As USA have just experienced.