India vs Australia: Students protest against CAA, NRC at Wankhede during the Mumbai ODI

India, on Tuesday, suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Australia as the visitors crushed their fancied hosts by 10 wickets in the first ODI at the Wankhede Stadium. Right from toss till the end of the match, Australia remained on top of the proceedings as they registered their fourth straight ODI win over India in India. This is also Australia’s first-ever ten-wicket win in an ODI over the Men in Blue. However, amidst all this, CAA and NRC protests took place even at the Wankhede and was the talking point.

Asked to bat first, India were off to a shaky start as Rohit Sharma, who was returning after a brief break, departed for just 10. But before Australia could make further inroads in the match, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul steadied the ship. After a cautious approach, the two opened their arms and added 121 runs for the second wicket.

However, both of them departed in quick succession and with skipper Virat Kohli failing to deliver too, India’s innings lost the momentum. The hosts were eventually all out for 255 with five balls remaining. Dhawan was the top-scorer for India with 74 while Mitchell Starc was the pick of the bowlers for Australia as he scalped three wickets. Pat Cummins and Kane Richardson picked up two wickets apiece.

But unlike their Australian counterparts, Indian bowlers could not pick up a single wicket as Australia chased down the 256-run target without any trouble whatsoever. Both David Warner and Aaron Finch scored centuries to help their side chase down the total inside 38 overs.

Protest at the Wankhede Stadium

The protest over CAA, NPR and NRC, meanwhile, reached the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. A group of college students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai University and IIT Bombay decided to use the platform to show their anti-CAA slogan t-shirts. The students reached the stadium in t-shirts, which read “No CAA, No NRC and No NPR”.

A section of the crowd started chanting Modi-Modi as soon as the security officials came and talked to the students. The turn of events were baffling since the authorities had taken measures to ensure that spectators don’t display signs of protest. One of the students later revealed that the protesters had hidden the t-shirts under shirts and removed the latter after entering the stadium.

He also revealed that he and his fellow protesters did not raise any slogan regarding NPR, NRC or CAA and were singing patriotic songs. “We opened our outer shirts somewhere around the 20th over. We chanted slogans during the match, such as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ but no slogans were raised regarding NPR, NRC or anything,” the student named Arish Qamar told Indian Express.

Here is a clip of that incident: