When India play England at Lord’s, which side has the home advantage? On Sunday evening, as the teams battled to keep their semi-final hopes alive, it was hard to tell. The high stakes clash between the tournament favourites and the hosts saw a packed house at the home of cricket, the 28,000-seater a sea of blue. Unfortunately for Paul Collingwood and his troops, it was the wrong shade of blue.

Ever since they landed in England, MS Dhoni’s team have found massive support wherever they have played. Twenty matches into the tournament proper, people are still talking about the atmosphere at the India-Pakistan warm-up clash at The Oval on June 3.

For India’s match against the West Indies on Friday night, nearly 70 per cent of the stands were singing Yeh dosti from Sholay. Don’t ask why.

In the stands on Sunday, among others, were Sachin Tendulkar and his family, while Indian race driver Karun Chandhok, currently driving in for Ocean Racing in the GP2 Series, dropped in as well. There was a massive contingent from Hyderabad too, led by film actor Venkatesh — a big supporter of the Indian team and a regular traveller to World Cups.

But it’s the British-Indians who sing the loudest.

Dinker Acharya, 68, known among cricket fans here as uncleji, has a bagful of Indian cricket stories. He has watched, live, three of India’s most memorable triumphs — Kapil Dev’s 175 against Zimbabwe at Turnbridge Wells, the team’s 1983 World Cup final win at Lord’s and the Natwest Trophy final in 2002, when Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif chased down England’s 325 here.

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