Team took more time to reach stadium than a win against Pak

MUMBAI: This is one piece of statistics which may not find its way into the multitudes of official cricket records.

The victorious Indian Twenty20 World Cup squad spent more time in traversing the 30-km distance from the airport and the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday than in defeating arch-rivals Pakistan to clinch the inaugural chamionship in Johannesburg.

A Twenty20 game lasts around three hours, including a break of 20 minutes between the innnings, but triumphant skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team members, who were taken in a 30-km long motorcade, took an extra hour to reach the Wankhede Stadium where they were feliciated by the Cricket Board and the Maharashtra government.
    
The extra long (in terms of time taken) journey for the team members, seated in an open-topped BEST bus, was because of the sea of humanity through which the vehicle had to pass right through the route from the airport in northwest Mumbai and the stadium in the southern part of the metropolis.

It was an amazing show of glee and enthusiasm shown by the Mumbaikars in greeting the team that was given very little chance to win the crown by the same cricket fans before the tournament began on September 11.
   
Dhoni made an apt comment at the felicitation function later by saying that Mumbai was a city that never stops moving but on Wednesday it had come to a standstill to welcome the team.