A few hours before the final match of the India-Australia ODI series begins at the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground, Virat Kohli comes out in the field for a warm up amid the loudest cheers. As he touches the ground and touches his forehead thrice, the thousands of Indian fans who have already gathered on the stands in anticipation go euphoric.

It may not matter what he scores today or whether he scores or not, considering he couldn’t open his account in the last two matches of the series, which India has lost to Australia anyway. But at SCG, which has a capacity to seat 43,000 and no tickets left, the smiles and cheers don’t tell the story of loss, but of undying love for cricket, and for the cricketers.

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The lightrail that arrives at Moore Park statio

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