I went to every Pakistan game in the Champions Trophy. I lived and breathed every moment of our campaign. Almost every game was draining apart from the England one which was a thrashing, as was the final but the feeling of ecstasy, euphoria, and ultimate satisfaction was quite draining and mind numbing.
The first India game was quite an experience, I've only been to 2 Pakistan games before, both losses against India in Karachi in 2004 and 2006. Those were Pakistani home crowds I had never seen an Indian crowd in full force before, the IPL has really trained them how to support their team.
I was sitting with 2 other Pakistani friends and was surrounded by a group of 60 Indians who had flown in from Washington D.C for the game. After every ball they would all look at us and a few would pass a comment, some would mock us, others would try to be witty. The most emotionally draining moments were the dropped catches off Kohli and Yuvraj as well as the Malik runout, but in particular the 3 consecutive sixes Pandya hit off Imad. We walked out after our 8th wicket fell and were surprised to receive a gracious guard of honour from them. We did suffer from PTSD the next day.
The South Africa game was quite draining too. We stuck around to see if play would restart but I kept praying it wouldn't because our middle order looked very fragile and ripe for a collapse. The Sri Lanka game was the most competitive and by far the most tense once we collapsed. For the viewers on television it was probably the most emotionally draining, however nothing compared to the first India game for the crowd at least. We were scared another batting collapse was possible against England but we smacked the daylights out of them.
In the final the menacing Indian crowd was back but thankfully a lot more Pakistanis turned up for this one. This time the Indians were a lot more hostile as were some of the English fans who were siding with India. Azhar's self-induced run-out and the Kohli drop by Azhar were excruciatingly draining moments and the Indians celebrated as if they had won the cup both times. But the wild celebrations from us that followed as the match went on sent my friends and I into a daze it was by far one of the most euphoric and satisfying moments of my life.
We absolutely bashed the Indian crowd and they just ran away some didn't even return for the 2nd innings, which was pathetic. There were so many emotions and so much adrenaline being pumped I felt absolutely drained. As a member of the crowd I found both the India games a lot more emotionally draining than the Srl Lanka game even though it was the most competitive.
