As thousands of people gathered in south Mumbai to witness the Indian T20 cricket team’s victory parade, Mumbai police on Thursday evening advised commuters to avoid heading towards Marine Drive.

The T20 World Cup winning side is to take part in a two-hour open bus parade from the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Nariman Point to Wankhede Stadium.

“Due to the heavy rush of fans around Wankhede Stadium, people are requested to avoid commuting towards Marine Drive,” the police appealed through their X handle.

People started gathering at Marine Drive from as early as 3 pm and at some places police struggled to bring the crowds under control.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Satyanarayan took a stock of the security arrangements at Marine Drive and Wankhede Stadium earlier in the day.

Earlier, traffic came to a grinding halt on south Mumbai’s busy road as a huge number of fans lined up on the 1-km stretch to greet the men in blue on Thursday evening after the stupendous T20 World Cup victory in Barbados.

The entire stretch from Nariman Point to Churchgate was thronged by the Team India supporters and the Wankhede Stadium rumbled with deafening sloganeering and sonorous cheers from the crowd waiting for the parade to begin with cricketers arriving on an open-deck bus specially brought in from Gujarat

The Vistara flight that landed in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport with the Indian team was accorded a “water salute” in celebration of the team’s triumph.

Even an overcast sky and intermittent light rains couldn’t dampen the spirits of the ecstatic crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of their heroes and the World Cup trophy.