After his dismissal in the last league match here, Rohit Sharma got a standing ovation with the crowd believing that this could be his last match.
As Rohit was leaving amid the ovation and cheer, all that quickly turned into loud boos as Pandya walked in to bat.
But all that were matters of past when Pandya landed amid defeaning cheers with a vast sea of fans filling up the Wankhede Stadium as well as the Marine Drive to the brim.
“See you soon, Wankhede,” wrote the World Cup champion as he posted his selfie with the trophy before the parade here.
Inside the stadium, chants of ‘Hardik! Hardik!’ began to reverberate.
He was among the first to walk out with the trophy aloft his shoulder at the airport here earlier and at his ‘homeground’, Pandya was the first to show the coveted trophy to the thousands of fans who waited for hours.
Chaos, stampede-like situation was widely anticipated and feared but everyone was in the mood to cheer for India’s heroes including Pandya, who took part in the open bus ride for a couple of hours before heading to the Wankhede Stadium.
And when Virat Kohli in his speech underlined Suryakumar Yadav’s catch in the final over off Pandya, cheers were thunderous as Wankhede in unison cheered ‘Hardik! Hardik!’.
“The biggest turnaround happened in terms of (when) he was included. We could bat deep and we had an extra bowling option. In last ODI World Cup final we missed him,” said a fan.
“The biggest testament is Hardik’s mental strength, he was booed in the (first game) here against CSK. But still he did not hit back, kept his head down and kept working.
“All the hate he got was unwarranted. The owners took him in, he had nothing to do with it. There was no point booing him, he was our captain but we did not. Obviously, we did not qualify (for the playoffs) but we are just here to celebrate him and smile all day,” he added.
“The problem with us MI fans is that we have very short memories. Now we are going to cheer ‘Mumbaicha Raja Hardik Hardik’. We will accept him as MI captain now,” he said.
Hyderabad-based Srinivas Reddy, a Bank of America employee, logged out at 3:30 am and took an early flight to reach Mumbai only to celebrate India and Hardik’s feat.
“IPL is different from international cricket, it is purely entertainment cricket. I am happy for him, he scored runs and took wickets that too at the crucial times. We needed that (Heinrich) Klaasen wicket (in the final),” Reddy said.