Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Perth poised to smash attendance record for West Test

Australia’s clash with India in The West Test has officially become the biggest cricket crowd at Perth Stadium on Sunday. And Perth is poised to break it’s all-time record crowd for a Test match, with fans flocking to watch Australia play India in massive numbers across the weekend. The West Test twice broke the record for the best attendance to a day of cricket in Perth, on day one and again on day two. A total of 63,670 supporters watched the first match of the five-Test series between Friday and Saturday. It is now poised to overtake the 2006 Ashes Test, where Adam Gilchrist scored a famous rapid-fire century and Australia won the urn 3-0, as the most popular match in the State’s history. Sunday’s crowd of 26,166 to watch India’s batters smash records of their own took the total attendance to 89, 836 means just 13,605 people are required to pass the all-time mark on Monday. It is now the biggest crowd since international cricket moved from the WACA Ground to Perth Stadium, passing the 81,104 that watched India in the first-ever five-day match at the venue. Indian megastar Virat Kohli — the main character of the series’ Hollywood build-up — delivered in a stunning return to form. He scored a century that brought Optus Stadium to its feet with his 30th Test century, his seventh in Australia and second in Perth. Kohli had Indian fans eating out of the palm of his hand. He celebrated his century by dropping his bat and blowing kisses to throngs of Indian fans in all corners of the ground. The third day of the blockbuster match was the centrepiece of a rolling festival in Burswood on Sunday, surrounded by the WA Day Festival and The West Test Summer Fest. Optus Stadium boss Mike McKenna said feedback around the new festival had been roundly positive and he was confident crowd numbers could grow again for next year’s Ashes series. Western Australia has locked in the first Test of each summer for the next three summers, including next year’s battle with England and a 2026 clash with New Zealand, with an eye towards that deal being pushed out further. “Having the first Test of the summer in Perth is great. The teams are in town for longer it allows the stories to develop and interest to grow,” McKenna told The West Australian on Sunday. “We’re really pleased with the crowd numbers at this match and we want to build on that for England next summer.” McKenna said beating a record long-held by the State’s traditional home of cricket was a triumph for the state-of-the-art new venue. “It validates this as a venue for cricket. The WACA Ground was great and has an important place in cricket history, but only nine thousand seats were available to the public,” he said. “Here, people can come and experience cricket for the first time.” More of the top-tier of the ground was opened up to the public on Sunday as temperatures climbed above 35 degrees. After a day of chaos on Friday where 17 wickets fell and Australian Mitchell Starc described the game as being “in fast-forward”, there was a live risk the match wouldn’t last beyond the weekend. But a remarkable innings by Yashasvi Jaiswal, a 22-year-old Indian prodigy who moved to Mumbai and lived in a tent selling street food to fund his rise to become a batting genius, will push the match well into Monday. “I was barracking for a good Indian innings and then a good Australian innings,” McKenna joked. Records weren’t just tumbling off the field. Jaiswal and batting accomplice KL Rahul posted the highest-ever opening partnership by an Indian pair in Australia. Jaiswal’s score of 161 is the seventh-highest by a travelling player in a Perth Test, joining the likes of South African great AB de Villiers and former New Zealand captains Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson. And Australia has their sights set on one more record. To pull of a miracle victory on Monday, they will need to run down the biggest fourth-innings chase in their Test history. India lead by 522 and the previous best, a score of 3-404 to beat England way back in 1948, included a masterful century by Sir Donald Bradman.