The match started at around 7:30 am. Both the teams were in high spirits. Maate was looking unusually energetic today. Wonder whether it had anything to do with the sudden and mysterious disappearance of about a dozen Aloo parathas in H11 yesterday night.
We won the toss and elected to bat. As we were getting ready for the ultimate destruction of our opponents bowling, Tarun suddenly realised one thing - Sagar has not yet reached the ground.
"Idiot he must still be sleeping. Someone call him up. Meanwhile me and Kiran will open the innings".
First over. Shailendra bowling to Tarun....and it's a six!!!!!!!!!
But in the very same over Kiran nicks one to the keeper. One down.
Sagar was supposed to be the next batsman, but he was yet to reach the ground. Kiran had to decide who will take Sagar's place now. He looked at the 4 of us sitting in our "dressing room" - Guru, me, Vishal, Uday. He pointed his finger in our direction in slow motion...and from somewhere behind, came the announcement
And the winner is....Sree Shankar.
"Ooohhh I won...I won...", I cried out.
The crown of the "Next batsman" has come on me. I can't believe it. I hugged my friends and thanked them for their support. As I walked down to the crease to a standing ovation, I was rehearsing my acceptance speech in my mind -
"Thank you everyone for this wonderful moment. I would like to thank my parents, who supported me by buying me a toy bat at the age of 5, which I broke the very next day. I would also like to thank my coach Mr Machine Mandotkar who kicked me out of his coaching academy for breaking his office window with my deadly bowling and last but not the least I want to thank my friend Kiran TVS for getting out so fast and giving me a chance to hold the bat for the first time in my life".
The game resumed. I was just unstoppable. I whacked my bat in all possible directions. The only problem was that I was whacking empty air. The stupid ball didn't know that it was supposed to make contact with my bat and not with the stupid keeper's hand. The balls kept coming and I kept whacking and keeper continued his catching practise. I guess Rahul Dravid, sensing that his record for the lowest strike rate was on the verge of being broken by my stupendous innings and must have threatened Sagar (he finally managed to reach the ground) with dire consequences if he didn't do anything about it. So the poor guy, coming under intense pressure, recalled me back to the pavilion.
Tarun meanwhile was playing Godgiri game. But the rule was that after the batsman crosses 30, he had to retire. Thus all our star batsmen, including me, were back in the pavilion. Once our innings ended, we had scored just 49 runs in 7 overs.
Sagar, as usual, was our opening bowler. He, along with Uday, bowled a tight line and length and by end of 4th over, they required 26 to win from 18 balls. Next came girls' over. It was time for Maate to show to the world, the power of Aloo parathas of H11. The first 2 balls were deadly - they were declared dead. But Maate then upped the ante and managed to bowl 4 balls which were bang on target. But unfortunately the next 2 balls went for boundaries.
16 to win from 12 balls.
Tarun was the next bowler. He managed to ball 3-4 good balls, but then 1-2 bad balls can turn the situation in this game. 2 boundaries in 2 balls.
7 from 6 balls.
Kiran came in to bowl. He tried his best, but it was a tough task. Powai Panthers won the match. But nothing has been lost as yet. We still have 2 matches left. Tomorrow we face Dark Knights. The Dark Knights lost today's match against Scorpions. Let's see what happens tomorrow.
4 comments:
i dont know if you are good or not at batting but you are certainly good with words.....
keep posting the updates. This updates are worth reading than the scoreboards :D ;)
OYe you forgot to thank sagar for coming late so that you got chance to bat....and bu the way who told you the crap of alloo paratahs.....
i had given 000640 na not 000644....
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