She was all excited, prancing among the trolleys of potatoes, baked beans and toilet rolls in the supermarket self-checkout.

“Guess what?” she asked. So I guessed. Won Lotto? Getting married? Bought a house? New car perhaps? “Bigger,” laughed the New Zealand Indian store supervisor.

We chat and kid each other when I’m in-store, but I don’t know her name. However, this time she needed to share, and I was there, and I would do.

“Cricket! I am going to the cricket!”

Bay Oval? “Yes.” India v the Black Caps? “Yes!” Both games? “Yes!!”

It’s a measure of a people’s regard for a game and those who play it – on the subcontinent, 66% of India’s 1.5 billion population are deemed to be cricket fans. As many as 200 million play all forms of the game, from the back streets to stadiums.

Here in Tauranga, the ex-pats make up another sizeable and enthusiastic playing and fan force.

“When India comes to town, the whole ground lifts,” Bay Oval manager Kelvin Jones said.

Cricket World Cup match at Seddon Park between India and Ireland in Hamilton. Photo / Christine Cornege

He’s expecting one of the biggest crowds of the summer at his venue this weekend, as Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui hosts two One-Day Internationals (ODIs) between the Black Caps and India.

The fourth ODI takes place today, with the first ball at 3pm. The fifth ODI is on Sunday, , again starting at 3pm.

“Our Indian community bring a generosity and a joy to cricket that’s infectious,” Jones said.

So where will the loyalties of the supermarket’s “excited one” lie at Bay Oval today? “Both teams,” she said. “That’s how I do it. The home is New Zealand, the heart is Indian.”

The “home and heart” analogy has become something of a catchcry. You hear it and see it on banners at the games.

It’s all about divided loyalties and epitomised by cricket-crazed Ravi in the ANZ Bank television advert.

Torn between savoury and spicy, or Kiwi and Indian, Ravi pulls the lid off a meat pie and inserts a samosa. And a fat green chilli. A symbolic compromise.

For real-life, self-confessed cricket nut Varinder Kumar, born in Punjab and a Kiwi for 30 years, there will be no compromise while he’s parked on the embankment at Bay Oval this weekend.

“I can’t look past India. I can’t,” the Tauranga resident said. But he’s “absolutely Kiwi everything else! That’s for sure”.

To Kumar, the Black Caps are kind of India B, or India’s “second team”. “All India loves the Black Caps.” And with 1.5 billion people, that’s a lot of love. But it means little at home here in Tauranga.

Because, at home, there’s a strong-minded 9-year-old New Zealand-born Indian, who thinks Kiwi, behaves Kiwi, and is Kiwi to the core.

This is Kumar’s daughter Chahat, her name an Urdu word for “desire” or “love”. She desires, or would love, for Dad to drop his allegiance to the Indian team.

“He always cheers for India. Why does he do that?” she asks.

“I want him to support the Black Caps because New Zealand is our country!”

Tauranga resident Varinder Kumar and his daughter Chahat, 9, will support opposing teams at this weekend’s two BlackCaps versus India ODIs at Bay Oval. Photo / Kelly O'Hara

However, there’s detente, an easing of international cricket tension in the Kumar household before the weekend’s cricket at Bay Oval. Kumar told Chahat she “can be Black Caps” and he “will be India”. A truce. They will sit together, but cheer different teams.

The census tells us more than 7000 people of Indian origin live in Tauranga. “Most will be at the games,” Kumar said.

Jones agreed. “Grandparents, parents and kids turn up. You can feel and hear their passion right around the ground. The match becomes a festival, and that’s exactly what we want.”

This writer has experienced that festival, carnival, celebratory atmosphere sitting in Eden Park’s North Stand during previous games against India. The local Indian contingent is entertainment itself: extended families, flags, banners, food, banter from first ball to final. They don’t stop. They love to love the game – and whether it’s wickets or runs, up they go. No alcohol; they just get high on the occasion.

I’ve had to relocate several rows back up the stand so I could see over the wallpaper of saffron, white and green flags with that distinctive 24-spoke, “bicycle wheel” centrepiece. But I’m not complaining.

Despite his cultural leaning, Kumar said it would be win-win for him this weekend.

“There’s never disappointment losing a wicket, or a game, to the Black Caps. But it would be very different if it was Pakistan or Australia.”

He measures his Kiwi pride by a famous moment in New Zealand cricket in February 2014 at the Basin Reserve. “I was very happy, so proud, to be a Kiwi that day.”

Because he’d just watched Brendon McCullum “smash the Indians apart”, hitting 302 in New Zealand’s first test match triple century.

“Awesome for the Black Caps, but awesome for cricket. Because while I am an Indian fan, I am principally a cricket fan.”

To celebrate 100 years of sporting ties with India in Tauranga, there will be a live cultural fusion performance featuring Māori and Indian performers during the innings change this weekend.

If not sold out, find tickets at https://tickets.nzc.nz/.