In the city that allows its residents only a few days of respite, jubilant citizens took to the streets to celebrate the thrilling two-run victory of the Pakistani cricket team over Bangladesh in the final of Asia Cup on Thursday.
Almost all areas in the city echoed with gunshots as citizens, mostly youngsters, thronged the streets and roundabouts, dancing to the tunes of national songs.
Holding national flags in their hands, some people also distributed sweets and felicitated each other over the sensational triumph of the cricket team.
Vehicular traffic came to a standstill as some people even started dancing on the roads by parking their vehicles along the roadsides.
Some cricket enthusiasts had installed large screens at certain points to enjoy ball-to-ball live coverage of the final match. The viewers were seen glued to the television screens until the last ball. There were fireworks at every boundary scored by the national team while the youth also cheered every fall of wicket of the Bangladesh cricket team during the match.
Talking to Pakistan Today during the last moments of match, a cricket fan in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Muhammad Hassan, a commerce student, said that he had missed his scheduled classes at the University of Karachi and had not moved from the television. “Pakistan has to win.”
“Some of our friends arranged plasma screens and invited all of us to join them,” he said. “We believe that the Pakistani team will win the match on the last ball.”
Another cricket fan told Pakistan Today said that he had made arrangements for over a 100 people and set up a tent in the street to enjoy the match.
“My best wishes are with the Pakistani team and I hope that we win this match,” Kamran Ali, resident of Kalaboard in Malir, said. “Pakistan has the record that it always wins matches against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup and our team has to win the match to maintain the record.”
“Pakistan won the Asia Cup in 2000 and we are hopeful that the Pakistani team comes back to the country with the trophy,” he said.
Ali said that Bangladesh has proved its worth by defeating the world champions India and also Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup title but still Bangladesh is in a strong position in this match
As soon as Pakistan won the match, all the people at the gathering started dancing and felicitating each other.
