Disclaimer : Unusually high dose of masala and imagination added.
KRRRINGGGGGG...
The alarm echoed all over the four corners of H11 hostel.
"Kaun gadha phone kar raha hai itni subah".
Neha picked up the phone.
"Neha, this is Tarun here. Come to KV grounds at 7 am."
"Acha it was you. Don't worry Tarun, I will be there at 7 sharp"
True to her word she reached the ground at sharp 7 am. As usual, everyone except the lazybones Sree, had reached the grounds.
"C'mon my boys, aaj ye match hamko jeetna hi hai. Woh Sree ka bachha abhi tak aaya nahi kya.Osko do thapad doonga. Aane do osko."
After 10 minutes or so, Sree somehow managed to reach the ground after which the match started.
Day-7 : Semi finals between Ultimate Warriors and "The Strikers"
Toss was won by "The Strikers" and they chose to bowl first. For Ultimate Warriors, Tarun the owner came out for batting along with Uday.
Tarun started blasting and by end of first over Ultimate Warriors had a good start.
But in the 2nd over Tarun got out. He returned back to the pavilion.
Maate felt let down that such an important member of her team got out so early in the innings.
"Yaar Tarun tune fine leg ki aur maarne ki koshish kyu ki. Straight bat se khelna tha na"
"Sorry Neha", said a dejected Tarun.
Sree looked at Maate with his mouth wide open.
"You know so much cricket? Fine leg?Straight bat?"
"Oyee u r talking to the captain of Indore Women's Cricket team. Mind it."
Meanwhile Kiran and Uday continued batting.
Maate was in full form.
"C'mon Kiran maaro chakka"
Maate was giving cricket tips to whoever cared to listen.
"Kiran ka bat lift utna nahi hei jitna chahiye. Isliye woh teek se nahi khel paa rehe hei. Aur unke bowling na..blah..blah..blah......"
Meanwhile 4 overs up. Now it was Matte's turn
"C'mon Maate, you can do it", cheered the Ultimate Warriors.
"Ya I know I can do it", Maate acknowledged.
20 pushups, 25 situps and 30 strecthes later, Maate was all set to face Ambu, the lady terror from the Strikers' team.
1st ball...Ambu balls...Maate misses....
"Pitch mei bahot patthar hai", Maate reasons, looking at the pitch.
"Oyee tu...", Maate shouts, looking at the nearby fielder." idhar aa...ye sab pathar hata"
The poor guy meekly followed her order. After all, who can dare disobey Maate.
2nd ball....Ambu balls...Maate misses...
"Hmm bahot tez hawa aa rahi hai".
3rd ball....Ambu balls...Maate misses
"Mere ankh mei dhool gaya"
4th ball...Ambu balls...Maate misses...
"Oyee ball mei bounce nahi hai"
5th ball...Ambu balls...Maate misses...
"Bat ki width bahut kam hai yaar"
"Aap agar aagya de to kitchen se bada sa tawa leke aau aapko batting karne ke liye?", Sree asked.
"Oyee chup, concentrate karne de mujhe".
6th ball...Ambu balls...Maate misses...
"Yaar inswinger tha. Kuch nahi kar payi".
Thus Maate completed her wonderful round of batting.
With some wonderful hitting at the end by Sagar, the Ultimate warriors put up a score of 65 at the end of their 7 overs.
The Strikers started their innings with Vijay and Harnath. Sagar started with a great over conceding just around 4 runs.
Maate was inspiring our team members with her cheering everyone from the pavilion (as for 1st 4 overs, girls from both teams had to sit outside).
Then started the downslide. Each over, we were gifting them with wides and no balls. Wides after wides were being bowled by almost all bowlers.
Maate was getting frustrated.
"Oyee kamino, itni subah subah utke aayi hun ye sab dekhne ke liye? Thik se bowling kar re. Inswing kar, Out swing kar, kuch bhi kar, bas unko out kar".
But no use. Along with the opponents' great batting and our wide bowling capabilities, the Strikers were inching slowly but steadily towards their target.
By end of 5 overs, they required 8 to win from 2 overs. Tarun bowling the 6th over...
wide,wide,wide,wide......there...game over...most wonderful way to end a game...
The Strikers win with 2 overs to spare. Ultimate Warriors creates history....for the most number of extras - 30. Now that's what is called an unbeatable record.
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
KPL Day 5 - Execution of a perfect plan
Day 5 - as usual had to cut short my sleep and get by at 6:30 am to "report" at the ground for our "practise" match against Scorpions. It was a practise match because we have already qualified for the semis. We had taken a decision the previous day that we will stick to the following strategy -
"Play our worst game, make the other teams think that we can easily be pushed over and thus make them over confident during the semi final match".
Though others will find it very hard to stick to the game plan, it will be a cake walk for me since it comes naturally to me. But finally we did manage to execute the script to perfection. Here's how.
After winning the toss, we elected to ball. Sagar, though he struggled to stick to our team plan, he did manage to put up a credible performance and managed to give away 15 odd runs, though the team expected him to give atleast 20 runs away. Uday came in next and did his part well. The opponents were well in sight of a 100+ runs even though only 2 overs were done.
Next came in Tarun. We had high expectations from him. But he screwed up our plan!!! He gave only 10 runs!!! Sagar was desperate. The team plan was going haywire. He needed someone trustworthy to make sure the team plan is executed perfectly. He knew he could depend on only one person for this. He turned to me.
"Jaa mere sher, dikha tera jalwa"
And thus started my over of the tournament.
1st ball....6...
2nd ball...4...
Sagar started dancing with joy.
3rd ball....6 jaane waala tha...but unluckily caught at the boundary...
Sagar stopped dancing.
4th ball...dot ball.
Sagar stared at me. He had a "don't-let-me-down" look on his face. I gave him a "mei-hoo-na" look back.
5th ball...1...Smoke started coming from Sagar's ears...his face turned red.
6th ball...again caught and batsman out...Sagar went mad and started pulling out his own hair.
I let Sagar down. Only 11 runs and on top of that 2 wickets also.
Next over Kiran came in for bowling. The seasoned bowler bowled the right line and length and got thrashed all over. Smile returned back to Sagar's face.
He gave the last over to Guru.
First 4 balls dot balls. Sagar came in running and had a chat with him .
Sure enough it had the desired effect.
Next 2 balls - 6,4.
Thus the Scorpions scored 80 - which was 20 short of our expectations, but nevertheless we were fine with it.
It was easier than expected to stick to our plan when it came to batting...
Tarun opened, within 2 balls he was back.
Next was Sagar.
He went, he saw, they conquered, he came back...really fast.
Uday and Kiran tried their best, but somehow was not getting out too quickly.
When it was the girl's over, Maate too chipped in with her contribution. In KPL, the rule is for every wide ball the batting team gets +2 runs and everytime the bats-girl gets out, 2 runs are deducated from the batting team.
The bowler at the other end was Prajakta aka Motu, who apparently claims that she was the college cricket captain in her Btech days (government sources inform me that there was never a girls' cricket team in the history of that college, but let's leave that aside for the time being).
Thus whenever Motu bowled a wide delivery, Maate compensated by getting out the next ball.
Motu bowls wide Maate gets out,
Motu wide Maate out....wide,out...wide,out
Thus Maate successfully and skilfully batted through to make it a maiden over.
Maate returned to the pavilion to a standing ovation by our team members. The plan was working great.
Needless to say, by the time we ended the innings, we not only lost by 30 runs, but ensured that all of us got out. Whew it is really hard to make one's team plan work, but in the end we did it.
"Play our worst game, make the other teams think that we can easily be pushed over and thus make them over confident during the semi final match".
Though others will find it very hard to stick to the game plan, it will be a cake walk for me since it comes naturally to me. But finally we did manage to execute the script to perfection. Here's how.
After winning the toss, we elected to ball. Sagar, though he struggled to stick to our team plan, he did manage to put up a credible performance and managed to give away 15 odd runs, though the team expected him to give atleast 20 runs away. Uday came in next and did his part well. The opponents were well in sight of a 100+ runs even though only 2 overs were done.
Next came in Tarun. We had high expectations from him. But he screwed up our plan!!! He gave only 10 runs!!! Sagar was desperate. The team plan was going haywire. He needed someone trustworthy to make sure the team plan is executed perfectly. He knew he could depend on only one person for this. He turned to me.
"Jaa mere sher, dikha tera jalwa"
And thus started my over of the tournament.
1st ball....6...
2nd ball...4...
Sagar started dancing with joy.
3rd ball....6 jaane waala tha...but unluckily caught at the boundary...
Sagar stopped dancing.
4th ball...dot ball.
Sagar stared at me. He had a "don't-let-me-down" look on his face. I gave him a "mei-hoo-na" look back.
5th ball...1...Smoke started coming from Sagar's ears...his face turned red.
6th ball...again caught and batsman out...Sagar went mad and started pulling out his own hair.
I let Sagar down. Only 11 runs and on top of that 2 wickets also.
Next over Kiran came in for bowling. The seasoned bowler bowled the right line and length and got thrashed all over. Smile returned back to Sagar's face.
He gave the last over to Guru.
First 4 balls dot balls. Sagar came in running and had a chat with him .
Sure enough it had the desired effect.
Next 2 balls - 6,4.
Thus the Scorpions scored 80 - which was 20 short of our expectations, but nevertheless we were fine with it.
It was easier than expected to stick to our plan when it came to batting...
Tarun opened, within 2 balls he was back.
Next was Sagar.
He went, he saw, they conquered, he came back...really fast.
Uday and Kiran tried their best, but somehow was not getting out too quickly.
When it was the girl's over, Maate too chipped in with her contribution. In KPL, the rule is for every wide ball the batting team gets +2 runs and everytime the bats-girl gets out, 2 runs are deducated from the batting team.
The bowler at the other end was Prajakta aka Motu, who apparently claims that she was the college cricket captain in her Btech days (government sources inform me that there was never a girls' cricket team in the history of that college, but let's leave that aside for the time being).
Thus whenever Motu bowled a wide delivery, Maate compensated by getting out the next ball.
Motu bowls wide Maate gets out,
Motu wide Maate out....wide,out...wide,out
Thus Maate successfully and skilfully batted through to make it a maiden over.
Maate returned to the pavilion to a standing ovation by our team members. The plan was working great.
Needless to say, by the time we ended the innings, we not only lost by 30 runs, but ensured that all of us got out. Whew it is really hard to make one's team plan work, but in the end we did it.
KPL Day 2 - Ultimate Warriors become Penultimate Warriors
After a great first day yesterday, Ultimate Warriors found their match today - Powai Panthers,who were licking their wounds after getting mauled yesterday by Dark Knights, came right back into the tournament with this win. As for the Ultimate Warriors, we had a point to prove - that winning is not everything, we also know how to lose a match. When you are on a winning streak, it gets so boring after a while. So a good change for us I guess.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)