Three overs had remained in Bangladesh's fraught run-chase against Netherlands at Edgbaston when the most raucous cheer of the contest erupted in a corner of the Hollies Stand and infused the entire stadium in an instant.
Harmanpreet Kaur and her India team had entered the building ahead of the day's main event, and the effect was as if the surviving members of Black Sabbath had been seen waiting backstage at Villa Park, even while their support acts were still thrashing their way through their own energetic sets.
With respect to the committed splodges of orange that remained in situ for the entire day, India versus Pakistan was the only show in town… although, as the hawkers on Pershore Road would attest, having set out their stalls with multinational memorabilia in the hours before the match only to sell out early on anything blue, "Edgbaston versus Pakistan" would have been a more accurate billing.
"It's always like that!" Wahab Riaz, Pakistan's coach, said afterwards. "The community is always supporting you, there was a lot of support for Pakistan as well, but obviously it was more being covered by the Indians, as usual."
"I didn't feel like we were playing in the UK, to be very honest," Deepti Sharma, India's all-round matchwinner, said. "We got so much support from the crowd and fans are cheering for us, it felt like home conditions, because we played last year's World Cup at home and we didn't feel like we were playing in UK. So it's a good thing, and I can say that fans will come and support, and we will do our best - we will play our best cricket."
As spectacles go, it was entirely adequate; as contests go, it was once again sorely lacking. Not that an official crowd of 18,814 minded all that much. That figure ebbed and flowed - with its absolute peak coming at the height of Smriti Mandhana's key stand with Harmanpreet Kaur - but as they all drifted off into a pleasant Brummie night, the vast majority were plainly satisfied with another one-sided smackdown.
It has become a recurring theme in this distressed pastiche of a rivalry. India's men have lost just once to Pakistan in 17 World Cup meetings across the entire history of ODI and T20I cricket. India's women are on a similar tear, with just two losses in 14 (the biggest margin of which was two runs, at Delhi in 2016).
There were moments, as in any traditional act of giant-killing, when it felt that this one might be different. When Shafali Verma's hyperactive opening gambit ended in a feathered edge to the keeper after a massive first-ball six; when Jemimah Rodrigues top-edged to a juggling Natalia Parvez for 1; when Muneeba Ali and Gull Feroza were clattering along to 37 for 0 in four overs, and the crowd became so muted that its pockets of Pakistani resistance could finally be heard above the din.
But then, Mandhana got her key let-off at mid-off. And then, the brutality of India's lower order pushed their target beyond anything realistic. And then Deepti popped up with an ominous first over of 1-0-2-1 that telegraphed the boa-like terror of India's impending spin squeeze.
The final act was part mercy killing, part ritual humiliation. One moment, Deepti was warning Nashra Sandhu for backing up too far (and, as everyone knows, she walks the walk in that regard…), the next she was reaping the rewards of three furious swings for the hills, as Pakistan's tail folded with an inevitability that had been wilfully suspended for most of the afternoon.
Deepti, it must be said, was the perfect victor for an imperfect contest. Where other players - particularly in this India women's team, for whom superstardom is a relatively new phenomenon - might have dared to contemplate the unthinkable consequences of losing to such an opponent, she simply leant into her competitive edge and backed it to be more than enough.
Richa Ghosh's late batting onslaught was the moment at which India pushed their target beyond realistic reach, but even in that critical penultimate over, which was launched for 23 runs, it was Deepti who signalled the charge by stepping inside the line of Tasmia Rubab's first ball to lift it over fine leg for India's first boundary in 22 balls.
"I kept my plans very simple and just had self-belief that whenever such situations arise, I'll have to step up," she said. "We got that confidence from last year's World Cup and we are not taking it as pressure; we just want to play our best cricket in every match, that's what it is."
The match ended as it had begun, with an absence of handshakes and a sense that all of the tropes that have become so familiar in the men's game are now increasingly applicable to the women. Broadly speaking, of course, this is a good thing. But maybe, deep down, there was a hope that this version of the rivalry could find a means to be less acrimonious.
It probably is for the moment but the direction of travel is all too apparent.
"I left cricket way before, so I don't know what is the reason we are not shaking hands," Wahab said. "But I think if things want to move like this, let's let go like that. It won't make a big difference."