Haaa… the most energetic word nowadays in my Hemoglobin…. Cricket… I had a chance to watch Chennai – 600 028, a (gully) cricket focused tamil movie. Well crafted screenplay, so practical remainded the olden days when we used to play cricket in our area…. On an attempt to bring out the feelings of an average gully cricket player (enna mulikareenga athu naa thaan… enna thaan naa oru super player naaalum thannadakam venumla) , I have written this true incident happened last week…. Just tolerate like how u did for my previous blogs ;)
I still cannot give up the habbit of meeting my mates during Saturday morning cricket that we used to have almost once in every 2 weeks on average… This time I wanted to make it more intrstng and so I fixd a match between us (me, my X roomies, few colleagues) and them (one of my colleague’s roomies, ther group which talks the language sounding ‘lu’ ‘uu’ ‘oo’ most of the times---no offence) Supposed to be a 9-a side tennis ball cricket match in same place where we used to play usually in JP nagar but the count waz amazingly huge and we got few cricky lads (who speaks a language which sounds like a different tamil accent) whom we used to play often with in the same ground…. So it was 11 a side proper match…..
Pre match report:
The climate is just perfect….no rain, no sun, no heavy wind and pure bliss… no other matches happening in the ground and it was desserted allowing just ‘US’…. We all (my team) reached very early and playd 2 small games with in ourselves and had enough warm up…..we wer anticipating a great game….
Toss:
The toss session was quick….. and we lost it…..(ayoooo ayoooo) we are pushed to bowl first…. We are little tired with early games and was eager to pick batting first….anyways when you don’t know the opponent’s strength, its better to bowl first….
Rules:
Therz no much room behind the stumps…. Runs all around the stumps…. No runs for wide, byes, leg byes & overthrows…Over stepping is considered no ball only if the margin is huge…. These are standard rules for many tennis ball crickets… the leg side boundary (for right handers) is quiet close…. The ground is relatively small for 11 fielders and we predicted that scoring singles & doubles wil be tougher…. It was a 15 overs match and a bowler can bowl 3 overs max.
The feelings:::
What ever comes here after is purely my feelings and it need not be correct…. The scores and statistics may be little different as I cannot rember wat exactly happened in each and every minute…however, the incidents I quoted are true to the best of my knowledge….I generally don use names in my blog but I have to use this time and I hope the respective name owners wudnt mind….
We entered the field for bowling,
0 overs 0 runs
I made the bowling schedule, Krishna moorthy (the guy from TTA’s gang…TTA = Twisted Tamil Accent) and me are opening the bowling…..The other bowlers in the Q are Jagan, Umesh(TTA) & Vinay(TTA) …3 overs each was the plan…..I bowled the first ball… he defended it…. What a great feeling…. Hez a left hander…. Looking tall & smart…sounds like a prominent player….next ball deliverd…. Full toss… to the bat…. Straight hit… 4 runs….. f**** hell…. Confidence drained…. My mates wer shocked…. We all thought hez gonna take the s**t outta us…. 2 singles after that….
2 overs 9/0
Krishna moorthy finished his first over decently leaving away only 3 runs in that…. I was curious to not to give away anything by full toss or a slow ball…. This time the other opener played and bingo he got out of my 3rd delivery…. Catch to mid on….well done mani !!! I was releaved …. 2 singles in that over….
4 overs 11/2
K and me bowled the next 2 overs extrodinarily well to keep ther scores on control…K took a wicket to rub the salt on ther wounds….now we gotto break this and get some one else to bowl in… Jagan was on my mind and I got him in… I haven’t seen much of his bowling before but he did splendidly well when he bowled the local game before the match…..he also managed to bag few wickets during his spell…
5 overs 14/3
I thought spinners can do the trick as the score is low and the batsman wer hungry for runs…. However, the risk is huge as leg side boundary is too close…. We took the risk and got vinay to bowl… he was totally superb and bagged 4 or 5 wickets… he was on a hat trick in between….but missed out….
8 overs 22/7
The runs are on control and I can experiment further…. My mates askd me or k to continue but I want to reserve the last 2 overs for us….i called umesh to bowl as I thought he might be handy and proved it tho…he got a wicket and haven’t let away anything….the lower end of the opponents wer little sensible and scored runs with singles and 2’s…
12 overs 47/9
1 wicket remaining and the boys done remarkably well to bag all the wickets… I was greedy and snatched the ball to bowl the next over as I was confident to pick the last wicket…. And it happened like eating a cherry topped vanilly cake….. catch to mani again….. they wer all out in 12.1 overs with 47 runs…..
Hurray !!! we all wer happy….
“Macha cake walk da… jus play 15 overs we will win”…. Mani
“Just send the weaker one’s first and let them have ther chance”…Umesh
“Machi…I will play if therz any tension or pressure on batsman”….JK
“Be carefull… looks like they got good set of bowlers”…Ananth
Comments wer a lot… however, we din feel any much pressure due to low score…. (orayyy varutham enana entha naayum ‘nalla potada aravindhuuuunu sollavay ilai’) our objective was not to loose the wickets for atleast first 4 overs as we watched ther bowling was jus too good and we anticipated the best 2 should be opening the bowling…. We decided to send Mani and Ananth in as mani is known for his defensive but safe game and Ananth, the super hit man whenever therz a looze ball….
2nd Innings: 0 Overs 0 Runs
I went as an umpire so that I can interact with the batsman easily and also I can do the job relatively well (also none of the others ready to come and stand in the middle after a long fielding) I was searching for the bowler….some one told that he is the one and he is ready from his start point….. later i realized he is fast bowler and hez running from like 2 0r 3 kms away….. (aaaahaaaaa kelambitaaanya kelambitaaaan)… the batsman started sweating already and I told them just to keep the wicket and don bother runs for now….. the first ball was like a lightning…..mani managed to touch it and snatch a single…..the second ball was in same speed… good bouncer and cant even get the bat near to it….. we all in chorous “Machaaaaaaaaaa…” all the balls wer quick and spotless….. he bowld few wides though…. Jus a single of the over…
1 over 1/0
I was expecting a similar bowler to bowl the next over…but amazingly he was a spinner…. Leg spinner…. The ball spinned and turned like Ferrari…. I admired the energy in the team… they wer quak quaking almost for each and every ball…. The keeper is fulla speakers in his body…batsman was cleanly tortured in all directions…. The thrill got no bounds the batsman wasn’t comfortable at all… really really difficult to play the ball In such a scene….
5 overs 7/0
The only satisfying point was no wickets wer lost until now…. Ananth got saturated, “Dei I will start hitting da… doesn’t matter if I get out but cant be slow da”… “Yeah man…”, I knodded …”Go ahead and play your game…we got the wickets anyway”….A off spinner bowled this time…I called it as wide….”Its not a wide bro…”…”It is a wide… the ball is going away from the batsman”… I told him politely…”But I told you iam bowling offspin how can the ball go away from the batsman”,,,,”What the F****”, mani and me laughed at this….”May be u said but the ball actually spinned the other way”, I was still polite…”When I bowl like this how can it go away”..he showed the ball to my face and did the off spin action…”May be it has pitched on the stone and turnd the otherway…what ever, it’s a wide ball”I gesterd like I don wanna hear any more….. the next ball was pitched and went inside ananth’s bat and all shouted for a caught behind…. And I clearly denied as it was miles away from the bat…. But the fielders started swearing already…however, I noticed the keeper was quiet and din appeal…. Isn’t that apparent??? With fulla frusturation he bowled the next ball and ‘Clean bowled’…. The first wicket fallen…. The bowler shouted in gracy voice ‘God is great’….. some one else enhanced the sentence…’God is there and God is great’…. Though we lost a wicket I laughed my ass off….. hahaha… wicked…. I told this to mani and he laughed too…. “So kiddish”, he commented… I called Umesh to bat next as I know his batting well and he is a good connector of the ball…. I was anticipating a good pace in score…..he made few singles and got out trying to hit the ball to boundary and landed safely on the hands of long on…too….’Flippin hell’ … I din expected this… we gotta make some plan…. I called ‘Reddy’ the connection point between both the teams…. Hez a cool guy all the time and never takes any tensions at all… he played few deliveries got out and got back with same smile all the time…..I thought I can go and try my luck….. I askd reddy to do the umpiring bit….i don’t have any comments on ther bowling at that point…. I managed to snatch singles….
7 overs 22/4
Mani was out too…I called kicha to bat in…. he is always a batsman with class timing of the ball…. He is more a kinda sachin of our team but wont stay for a long time… I told him not to hit the ball in the air… he did and catch…..hez out too…. Then I called vinay as I had loads of hopes on him…. Gone case…. Keeper catch in the second delivery he faced…. Ayooo raama….!!! Then I called Jagan to pop in…. hez a strong chap who can do wonders….he was already charged up as he won accolades with his immaculate bowling….we both had a big pressure…..Jagan hitted a boundary and batting was like cake walk for him that point…..
11 overs 33/7
I was desperate to go for a huge shot… we needed 15 runs in 4 overs…. Required run rate is low but bowling is still tough… the leg spinner who bowled the 2nd over bowled now…. Jagan played the first ball and scored a single…. Second ball was in to the ribs and I defended… I gave a decent blow on the third ball with the spin to the deep square…the ball went and stuck in to the bush jus few centimeters before the boundary and I stopped after running 2 as I thought it’s a 4…. Bull shit !!! they argued it cant be a boundary as it haven’t touched the fence….i lost my temper and shouted like mad but its common for any…. I agreed as I din wanna argue any more and I was more tensed…. 12 more runs required and am facing the last ball of the over… I managed to hit the ball partially on the legside backside towards the leg slip region…. And I believed a single could be easy with that situation as we need runs anyway…. I haven’t heard any ‘Stayyyyy’ from the runner and my eye was on the ball and I hope we cud have make it….but shocked to see the runner haven’t moved out of the Greece in the other end… Run out !!!!... I yelled out of temper…. And I walkd out….
12 overs 36/8
12 more runs to win in 3 overs…. 2 wickets in hand… god save us… Krishna moorthy and jagan are at the Greece… I kno K is not a big hitter but a sensible batsman… I had my hopes on Jagan tho I was still having some sparks on him…. K scored a single and handed it to jagan….. the next 2 balls wer dots…. Tension all over… no other thoughts… we all shouting “Machi play safe”,”Get singles”,”Play your game”,”Stay cool”,”Game in hand”..bla bla bla…. I can understand that too one won listed to any of these…. But its human irony to say these and this shows the sportsmanshipy….. kalaaas!!!! 4 runs….. wow man I love u….. great shot and needed 6 more runs to win…
13 overs 42/8
We got 2 overs to play…. We wer expecting the fastest bowler but to our surprise a leg spinner came in…. K played the first ball and managed a cool single… ‘machi jus 5 more runs needed da’ I shouted…we wer on our toes keeping our fingers crossed behind the wickets….. ther wer 6 fielders on leg side and the bowler looks so confident… we wer talking to ourselves that if he din use this bowler then its tough to score from the fiery macho in next over… the bowler bowled his 2nd delivery of the over tossing the ball like a balloon…. It short pitched…took a small turn and met jaggi’s bat comfortably for a splendid hook… the ball rised up in the air like NASA rocket… all our eyes on the ball and partially shocket as we din wanna catch which is what happening in the past 1 hour or so….. hurrayyyyy !!! the ball jus managed to touch the boundary wall like 1 or 2 yards above the height of the fielder in the deep….. wat a shot man…. Bravo….. thaz wat I call it as courage…. We all went ther and patted him….. he coolly left this comment “Macha I dunno waz the point in placing all the fielders in leg side and bowling a leg side ball when the boundary is too close and the ball is too slow”….. I shouted “God is there still god is very much great” ;)
~~~~ the feelings~~~~
Disclaimer: the blog is not to exhaturate any one’s ability or insult any one’s mistakes….. this jus describes the feeling, fire, anger, happiness, energy, power …etc… when some one playing ther favorite game with his best mates…if u feel some of my opinion differs it with yours, consider this as piece of fiction…..
"Halo !!!! Wazzup??? yeahhh its 5.30 AM, yeahhh temp. less than 8 degree, yeahhhh am in the middle of a jungle, yeahhh man am awake :)"
Breaking knuckles...... Its been a bloody 6 hours journey inside mad made vehicle and now really relaxed to feel the early mrng wonder of nature..... the breeze....the temperature.....the greens...the birds.... some body freeze me here....
Oh my...... look at the roads...thank god its bad otherwise wudve been fulla vehicles to spoil the aroma ;) 
Macha its only board there da.... actually no place to 'Clean the bowl' .... search for a place were no humans can see us ...oops, no animals can see us.....!!!!
Skillu kanna skillu.... this is the photographic skillu !!!! 
The 'Thala' (Lead) of the adventure team....
Resting in peace.... until the end of trip.....!!!! ayooo ayooo 
Pose ma pose... few mins before our adventure trek.....
Get.......Set.......Yeahhh !!!! 
Oh no.... Dont worry... I can fix this up ;)
Posing like the owner of an adventure machine........!!! 
The only reason why we took 'U' turn on the way to the falls..... stop sucking my A negative stuffs.....uhhhh !!!!
