A high-stakes IPL match, a ring that slipped at the worst moment, and Rohit Sharma stepping in with a crowd gesture — this love story has all the right ingredients.
Wednesday's Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Kolkatta Knight Riders (KKR) clash may have been a crucial one, but it also brought a heartwarming moment back into the spotlight. A video from the first time the two sides met this season — on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium — has resurfaced and gone viral all over again. And the man at the centre of it all woke up Thursday morning to a phone buzzing with notifications he wasn't expecting.
The video shared by KKT on social media, captures an MI fan Tanveer Kohli, seated in the iconic Sachin Tendulkar Stand, going down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend Abha Puri— to thunderous cheers from the crowd. What makes it truly unforgettable, though, is what happened mid-proposal.
"I woke up yesterday, and realized the video had gone viral again. It was an amazing moment that we will cherish forever. The most fun bit was when I was proposing and suddenly the ring fell," he recalls. "It was awkward at first — but then Rohit Sharma, standing at the boundary, made a gesture to the crowd essentially saying, give him some time, two minutes, and he'll find the ring. Once I found it and proposed, the entire crowd hooted and cheered."
{{/usCountry}}"I woke up yesterday, and realized the video had gone viral again. It was an amazing moment that we will cherish forever. The most fun bit was when I was proposing and suddenly the ring fell," he recalls. "It was awkward at first — but then Rohit Sharma, standing at the boundary, made a gesture to the crowd essentially saying, give him some time, two minutes, and he'll find the ring. Once I found it and proposed, the entire crowd hooted and cheered."
{{/usCountry}}Nobody planned for Rohit to be part of the moment — but his instinctive gesture to the crowd may have saved it from becoming an awkward memory rather than a viral one.
The idea, he says, came from watching stadium proposals at baseball games in the United States. As a die-hard cricket fan, he wanted to recreate that magic at his favourite ground. “I have been watching these viral proposals on jumbo screens at football, basketball and baseball games around the world, so I wanted to create my own moment. I love cricket and even Abha does. So what better than doing it at the Wankhede in the midst of the IPL.”
Pulling it off, however, required some careful planning — especially when it came to smuggling the ring past the gates. "I reached out to KKR and they helped me plan the moment and assured they will capture it. The only concern was how to sneak the ring in without her noticing. If I'd brought the ring with me, she'd have spotted it at the security check," he explains with a laugh. "So I had my brother bring it in through a different gate and then sneak it to me inside."