Politics off, cricket on: Over to the great game

No seats available despite a capacity of 132,000. Hotels so expensive that fans try to make a run on hospital beds. Request from Virat Kohli: Don't ask me for tickets. And every time Babar Azam's phone buzzes, someone is asking if they can somehow be let into the ground.

- Vivek Krishnan

Saturday is not a normal World Cup day. It's India vs Pakistan.

It's the height of cricket rivalry in the subcontinent played with high expectations, higher octane, a security shroud, and with only one Pakistan supporter, superfan Bashir chacha, an American citizen who has travelled from Chicago, in the stadium.

If you think this stacks the odds either way; don't. For the pressure of a match such as this goes far beyond a screaming stadium.

This is a rivalry straddled by the baggage of Partition, by four wars, and by decades of political tensions. Not for the first time, cultural exchanges and cricketing ties across the border are at a roadblock. Since 2013, it's only at multi-nation events that they have clashed in. And even these meetings are questioned from time to time by hardliners who feel that relations should be completely cut off.

Even on Friday-match-eve, normally a time for mundane press briefings - the politics could not be kept aside.