A massive rush of cricket fans has been witnessed outside Barabati Stadium in Cuttack since Thursday night, with the area turning into a sea of anxious spectators eager to secure tickets for the India–South Africa T20 match scheduled for December 9.

Hundreds of people, many of them young fans, flocked to the venue hours before sunrise, forming long queues that stretched across the stadium perimeter. Despite the biting cold, the crowd kept swelling through the night, with people jostling for space and anxiously waiting for barricades to open. Many said they had travelled from far-off areas to ensure they didn’t miss out.

To streamline the ticket sale process, the Commissionerate Police implemented a new crowd-control system for the first time. Steel barricades have been set up in a serpen

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