They queued up to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat in his penultimate Test but even before fans at the Eden Gardens settled down on their seats, they were left disappointed when the retiring icon walked back to the pavillion just 41 minutes after coming in.
When Tendulkar came in to bat just 39 minutes after the second day of the first India-West Indies Test began, some of his fans were still trickling into the stadium as not many had expected an early fall of Indian wickets.
And when the 40-year-old was dismissed 41 minutes later, after scoring 10 runs from 24 balls, the fans endured a heartbreak.
It was a sold-out second day in the India-West Indies opening Test of the two-match series as Tendulkar was to bat in his penultimate international match.
"I came to watch him play some of his favourite shots. He displayed some form initially which kept our hopes alive that he will hit a century in his farewell to Eden. But this is disappointing," a 21-year-old college student Mallika Sarkar said.
Tendulkar took guard at 9.39am after Indian opener Murali Vijay was stumped when he tried to step out to off-spinner Shane Shillingford.
It was India's second wicket but the crowd started cheering as the number four got ready to walk in to play in his penultimate international match.
Most of them took out their camera-phones to capture the moment when Tendulkar came in to a standing ovation from the 30,000-odd crowd.
