Beautiful Dream Run (Part Two)

So having being put into bat, we sent in our openers CP and NA; with CS on the sidelines watching our every move and providing guidance.

Batting First

1st Over - Bowled by a woman

CP managed to take a single on the 1st ball and put our main batsman NA on strike, we collected around 15 runs from the 1st over, all thanks to CP's single and some power hitting by NA.

2nd till 5th Over

We can retire our woman player after the 1st over is bowled, so coming back to the pavilion accompanied a huge round of applause was CP. Next up was UE, he and NA has an amazing time in between and batted on till the 4th over. We lost UE in the 4th over and in came JT he took a few balls to settle down, CC was hoping that JT would perform well as he had put in a good word for him to CS. After a few hiccups we managed to reach a competitive score of 61 for the loss of 3 wickets in 5 overs. JT's performance was average and that's putting it very mildly.

Now Bowling

1st Over by CP

She had received a lot of inputs from CS on Saturday, and now was the time to follow-up on them. CP did a fine job at keeping the woman batsman on strike for 3 balls and conceding a couple of wide deliveries. For the remaining three balls Team Two could put up a score of 10 runs at the end of the 1st over.

2nd over by TT   

After going through a disastrous time in the previous edition of the cricket league, it was time to make things right. The 1st ball was lofted to long-on where RR was fielding, some sloppy fielding yielded 2 runs. This prompted UE to swap places with RR, 2nd ball was once again lofted to long-on, and UE made the catch look easy; his fielding change and TT's bowling were vindicated. 3rd ball was once again lofted to long-on and another catch by UE, this was turning into a dream spell for TT. The rest of the three went for 8 runs, a boundary included.

3rd and 4th over by NA and CC

These two overs went well for Team Two and they were in the game, thanks to our fielding to a very large extent. NA bowled well, the batsmen playing and missing most of the times. The only wicket to fall was by a run-out, which was a pretty eventful one; the batsmen edged a ball to the keeper and it spun after it landed, being sloppy as ever TT, the keeper, misjudged the spin and the ball went past him. They easily completed the single and went for a risky second. Now TT had a conundrum whether to go for a direct hit or throw at the bowlers end to get a run-out. As he wasn't sure about either he ran towards the stumps with more than 11 people screaming, " throw the god-damned ball", and when he was about 3 feet from the stumps he threw the ball and it hit, it bloody damn hit. God saved the day and his ass.

The Final Over - 14 Runs to win

Don't know whether CC had a plan in his mind about who was going to bowl the 5th over. Me thinks that he went with NA because he bowled a pretty good line. So NA with the ball, bowling the 5th over. The first ball a swing and a miss both by the batsman and the keeper (TT), so they get a bye. Second ball once again a swing and a miss by both, another bye. So they need 12 runs off 4 balls, match is still in the balance and everyone is pissed at the keeper. 3rd ball another swing, a nick and it lands just short of the keeper, but this time the keeper pockets it safely and no run given.

Final 3 balls and 12 runs to get, the pressure in on the batsmen to score and thankfully they couldn't. To everyone's bewilderment and ours included we won, we achieved our lofty goal. CS was ecstatic, however, he had to leave due to work commitments along with MIS. Congratulating the team for a very good performance and reminding us to improve our fielding for the next match which was against our old team-mate, the captain of 'Credit in a Mess' team.

PS : CC was given some more inputs for the next match, firstly that JT couldn't judge the bounce well, so to send him lower down the order and secondly to try out UE as a bowling option and if he bowls well not to give TT a bowl in the next match.   

A Beautiful Dream Run (Part One)

Third edition of the D Bank Cricket League consisted of 20 Participating teams. The match would be 5 overs a side and all matches were eliminators. Each team should comprise2 women and the opening batsman and the opening bowler should also be a woman. This was the set-up of the tournament. Now let me update you on my team.

I was part of the Scorchers Team, and our squad consisted of...

1) Captain on Call (CC) - has immense capacity to talk on the phone

2) Juvenile Thakoor (JT) - the youngest player of our team

3) Chulbul Pandey (CP) - our woman player

4) Didi from the South (SD) - 2nd woman player

5) Two overs on the Trot (TT) - this is me

6) CorpFirz (CF)

7) Hanu (H)

8) Mr. N from Admin (NA)

9) Another Mr.R from Admin (AR)

10) Chief Strategist (CS) - he was also the coach and mentor

11) Mr. MIS (MIS)

12) Tax Consultant (TC)

13) Risky Risk (RR)

The tournament was scheduled on Monday, February 20, 2012. And we scheduled our first practice session just 3 days before i.e. Saturday. It was an early morning session with one of the participating teams at a Municipal Ground near our office. Reporting time was 07:30 hours, only JT and NA were on time, TT, RR, CC and SD trickled in post 8; with 15 minutes gap respectively. The other team was on time and most of their members were present. We practised some bowling and batting for an hour; to call our efforts pathetic would be an under-statement. Most of us were holding a bat or ball after a very long time. Post practice we headed back to work. CC reported the status of the practice session to CS, and CS decided we needed another round of practice in the evening to decide what will be the batting and bowling order for Monday. The ones who had turned up for the morning practice were reluctant to go back on the field, we were already down and dusted with just 1 hour of practice.

So reluctantly we were on the ground in the evening, and post our practice the batting order was decided. CP and NA would open the batting and JT would go 1 down, and the bowling responsibilities would fall on CC, NA, CP and TT. We decided that the best we could do was win our 1st match, which was against 'Team Two'. The goal being set of winning the 1st match; in the previous two editions we used to bow down in the 1st match itself. Keeping that in mind this was truly a lofty ambition. We never used to discuss this goal openly so that we wouldn't jinx it.

Had to get up at 6 am to reach the ground at Kandivli by 8.30 am, reporting time for our match was 9.30 am. CC usually on time was late today and in his absence TT had to go for the toss. TT lost and toss and the opposing team put us to bat. So firstly we lost the toss and our strategy was to chase. While all this was happening, H came in with a new player Unknown Element (UE), on his recommendation we got him into the team and put him one down. This was a big risk but we had nothing to lose. So our team comprised of the following playing eleven (in batting order)...

1) Chulbul Pandey (CP)    

2) Mr. N from Admin (NA)

3) Unknown Element (UE)

4) Juvenile Thakoor (JT) 

5) Hanu (H)

6) Captain on Call (CC)

7) Risky Risk (RR)

8) Another Mr.R from Admin (AR)

9) Two overs on the Trot (TT)

10) CorpFirz (CF)

11) Didi from the South (SD)    

Spreading the word for Cricket Expansion

Have always felt that Cricket should have world following like Football or Tennis, this has led me to follow the developments and progress made by the sport in countries other than the British Commonwealth. Cricket has the numbers to be designated a world sport primarily because of the Indian Subcontinent, but I feel this concentrated support base neither sustainable nor desirable. Outside the subcontinent, cricket is not the main sporting attraction even in the other powerhouses like Australia, England or South Africa. Hence the need to popularise the sport not only in new locales but also the traditional ones.

The ICC has a 3 tiered (around 100 countries) structure for cricket, with the power centre in the first. Without getting into the politics of cricket, let's concentrate on the growth potential of the sport. So the remaining tiers consist of Associates and Affiliates. Among them the upcoming ones are Ireland, Scotland and Afghanistan; these teams consist predominantly home grown players unlike others like UAE. Ireland and Scotland being part of the United Kingdom have historically played cricket within the English established cricketing infrastructure. This is their boon as well as curse, as the English have been known to lure players from them, the most recent being the Irish southpaw, Eoin Morgan. However, the recent developments speak of good days to come; contracting players full time has led further commitment by them, resulting in better results against Full Members and the cascading effect of their improved performance has brought in the sponsors for both the Irish and the Scots. Recently Cricket Ireland came out with a roadmap to attain test status by 2020, this consist of establishing a first class structure and development of under-age cricket.

Afghanistan has been the beneficiary of refugees who have returned back home having learnt the game in refuge camps in Pakistan. They have risen from the Affiliates league to join the Associates within a span of 2-3 years; this phenomenal rise has been well documented and credited for uniting the nation. Recently hosted match against Pakistan was not only well attended (it was held in UAE) but also keenly followed in Afghanistan. Cricket can be a uniting force among the warring tribes and also bring some cheer to the ravaged country; it also plays a similar role in India, where Cricket is a very strong uniting force. 

Other nations which can rise to better levels are Nepal and Papua New Guinea, where cricket is followed and played by the locals. India and Australia share proximity to these nations should help them in their quest. A more selfish motive could be to help them achieve more political clout in the ICC. So I would like to see the following teams playing competitive cricket in 2020, Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan, Nepal and PNG. The only place where cricket can still make further inroads is Africa where South Africa along with a stronger Zimbabwe can help bring Namibia, Kenya and Uganda to the top level.