"I've never been to a women's match before, my brother said we have to go because it's India-Pakistan."
That's what one Indian woman in the stands at Dubai International Cricket Stadium told us on Sunday, amid a record crowd of 15,935 who watched India defeat Pakistan by six wickets. And she said she would be back.
The 100th T20I to be played at Dubai stadium drew the highest number of spectators for a league game at an ICC women's event and therefore the biggest crowd for a women's match between India and Pakistan. The last time these sides met at a T20 World Cup, in South Africa last year, 3578 people attended.
The fan who came on her brother's advice sat in the last row of the bottom tier, in the shade, with a perfect side-on view of Richa Ghosh's stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Fatima Sana. A few rows in front of her, two Pakistan fans dressed head to toe in green and white had danced in celebration just moments earlier when Sana swept and slog-swept back-to-back boundaries. It didn't matter when she was out, they still flanked an Indian fan in a warm embrace and posed for a photograph.
They were joined in the crowd by numerous families, young and old, many wearing team jerseys and, despite obvious national rivalry, all sitting in the same space.
Helped by some pumping tunes and an enthusiastic ground announcer who whipped the crowd into various chants, the atmosphere was electric and the noise thunderous, the Indian contingent outnumbering their Pakistani counterparts by - a rough estimate of - 85% to 15%.
The large number of fans turning out for this game makes sense when looking at the expat demographic in the UAE. Indians make up the largest number of foreigners, an estimated 38% of the population. The next largest single nationality group is Pakistanis, who amount to an estimated 17% of the people here.
Overall, the crowd was unmistakably mostly male, which is also in keeping with the demographics of the region - the Emirates has roughly two men for every woman living here.
As the contest became tight towards the end, with India needing 26 runs off the last 27 balls, the Pakistan contingent stood out, jumping up and down and waving flags frantically. When India won, their supporters sang along at the top of their voices as strains of Vande Mataram rang out over the PA system, India's unofficial victory anthem since 2011.
Arundhati Reddy, who was Player of the Match for her 3 for 19, was feeling the love. "Lovely crowd today," she said after the match. "A lot of Indians there supporting us. It just felt very good getting into the ground today, a lot of Indians cheering for us and we hope they keep turning up for us."
Sana, Pakistan's captain, also seemed to relish playing in front of such a big crowd: "I said to everyone enjoy being in the field because we all know the Indians have a lot of supporters and the whole crowd is totally supporting India so our whole team is enjoying it out there and they performed with intent so that's the best thing."
This turnout is likely to be the peak attendance at a tournament where crowd figures were expected to be a concern. But, during the three days leading up to this match, spectator presence has been a pleasant surprise, especially at the other venue in Sharjah.
From an underwhelming start in 37C heat on Thursday afternoon, the stands steadily grew more lively for the original hosts, Bangladesh, as they faced qualifiers Scotland.
Nigar Sultana's "heartbreak" at not being able to play in front of home crowds and celebrate the progression of women's cricket in her country was quickly healed by the presence of plenty of flag-bearing supporters and a DJ with a solid knowledge of a good Bengali playlist. "It was brilliant, we got quite a few people supporting Bangladesh," she said afterwards.
By dusk, those Bangladesh supporters were joined by Sri Lanka fans - as they arrived to watch their side take on Pakistan - and a papare band, which was also present during the match against Australia two days later.
While it's clear that support for the subcontinent sides far outweighs the smatterings of other countries' fans, that did not stop Australia seamer Megan Schutt from enjoying her time in the middle.
"There was a great atmosphere - we couldn't hear much over the trumpets. It was pretty loud," she said. "It was great to see some fans there. It's been so last-minute to change to Dubai and Sharjah, I think it was really impressive to see a crowd here and we love playing in front of people."
Happily, people have turned up despite the heat and against expectation, which has vindicated the ICC's choice to stage the tournament here instead of the other candidate, Zimbabwe. It is understood that the attraction of guaranteed crowds and Castle Corner vibes ensured Zimbabwe was a serious consideration but the lack of floodlights in Bulawayo was the main reason the country lost out.
Their loss is the UAE and its expat communities' gain.