Batsmen swung and bowlers knocked down wickets at the UVS Field Sunday afternoon.
In the final match of a cricket tournament sponsored by the Gator Cricket Club, the crowd cheered as the Hurricanes, a team formed by the Indian Graduate Students Association, dominated the Pakistani Students' Association's Gainesville Badshah, a word meaning "king" in Hindi.
"Whenever you have an Indian-Pakistani game, regardless of what level it is, that's probably the highest amount of competition or rivalry going on," said Srinivasan Venkatesh, the Gator Cricket Club president.
Cricket, a sport played in 104 countries and followed by about 1.5 billion people, is starting to gain a following in the United States.
Balasubramanian Purushothaman, a UF civil engineering graduate student, led the Hurricanes to victory as the team's opener. Exhilarated over his win, Purushothaman raised the trophy he received in the final ceremony and thanked all of his teammates.
"I would like to dedicate this winning to our boys here. We told them it wouldn't be a great match," he said. "All appreciation goes to God."
Venkatesh umpired the last game of the tournament.
Although the team he sponsored did not make it to the final round, Venkatesh said he is encouraged by the number of people involved in the sport at UF. Not only Indians and Pakistanis participated, but West Indians and South Africans took part as well.
Falak Shah, the club's vice president, said donations were collected from teams participating and spectators for the Haiti relief effort.
"We thought it was a good cause," Shah said. "A lot of our students are from the West Indies, so we felt that it was the most pressing issue right now.
Shah said Sunday the amount of money collected has not been calculated yet, but the club is very impressed with the amount of participation, and the tournament was a success.
"A lot of our players actually did play for their college teams in their home countries," Shah said. "I've been playing cricket since I was in India, and you know in India, every street corner, kids play cricket."
