Sleepless In Irvine
When I say we have never played such a
competitive game amongst ourselves, you better sit up and take
notice.
At the outset I will tell you that my team lost both the matches. It wasn't the loss but the manner in which we loss was caused much grief. Also the conditions were slightly hostile (especially in the second game). The defeat conjured up memories of our loss to Cisco (yes, it felt that bad). I
really didn’t feel like
writing but after giving it some thought I felt this story
deserves to be told. I
thought this is our team, our players and if we play like this and are
able to
turn games around like this then nobody can stop us! Hopefully this
will serve as a war cry and instill confidence and self-belief in
us while we play the tournament over the next two weeks. Here's wishing to all of us!!
I am jot sure if I got everybody’s names as we were nearly 16-17
players, I am sorry if I missed anybody.
Team A: Pankaj, Senthil, Pratik G, Pratik, Chandru, Ram, Siddharth,
Kartik (Venki’s friend) and Vasant (Senthil’s friend)
Team B: Venki, Rajesh, Dharmendra, Gour, Partha, Abhijeet J, Srinivas
(Pankaj’s friend) Anand
Team A won the toss and elected to bat. Pankaj and Chandru opened the
innings. Disaster struck in the very fist over when Abhijeet J clean-bowled
Chandru. Siddharth joined Pankaj. They played quite well. They were able to
ride the initial hiccup and steady the innings a bit. I say 'a bit' because the peace and quiet didn’t last too
long. Dharmendra took siddharth out, again clean bowled. Ram joined the
proceedings beckoning the bowlers, Venki in particular, to bowl in the right spots and
then get ready for some treatment. He was able to show that he meant business
when he hit a ball, which went quite high, but behind the wickets. He got a run
out of it. Then in the next over he got clean-bowled and was soon followed by
his team-mate who got bowled on the last ball of the same over. So you can see Team A wasn't doing that great. They were not able to stay and kept getting out
(read that clean-bowled) at regular intervals. The only run-out of the innings came about when the batsmen tried to steal a single. The new batsman Pratik was at the
non-striker’s end. The striker pushed the ball on the off, the fielder came in
running, picked up the ball and took a shy at the stumps knocking them over. But
unfortunately (for the fielder that is) Pratik was safely in the crease. The
ball hit the stump, ricocheted and went beyond the reach of the keeper.
There was nobody to back-up and so the batsmen decided to go for a second run. But
unfortunately (now for the batsman), Pratik
had run beyond the keeper and it took
him some time to turn around and run at the bowler's end. By this time a
fielder got to the ball and threw at the bowler's end to get him out. Team B
was in
total disarray. Their score wasn’t going anywhere and it would stay that
way for some time until their miracle worker showed-up. I am not sure
when Vasant came in
to bat, but standing at short mid-off I vividly recollect him playing beautifully especially on
the
off. He was angling his bat and literally slicing the deliveries to send
them
in the region that he wanted them to go. He seemed to have mastered the
art of placement. He was absolutely brilliant. He single-handedly took on Team B's
bowlers while the rest of his team-mates kept falling like a pack of cards at the slightest of
intimidation (by the ball, I mean). I remember thinking whether we were ever
going to get him out. Team B literally didn’t have an answer for him. He was the last man playing and was the sole reason for Team A's score to cross the 50-run mark. In the end just like most of his team-mates he too got clean bowled on a
Partha delivery. Ten of Team A's batsmen got clean-bowled. But for Vasant’s batting
there was nothing to talk about their innings. You could see it in their
body-language too. They appeared slightly listless and there were even groans
of the team composition of being skewed and they being setup for failure.
Team B was on a high. They were beaming with confidence. They knew their bowlers had done a good job and that they had the
necessary fire power to make things happen. They just had to apply themselves and not commit any harakiri. I
think Rajesh and Gour opened the innings. Kartik provided the first
breakthrough when he clean-bowled Gour. Folks started thinking whether Team B
would go down the same path as Team A. I was sitting on the sidelines when this
happened. I literally saw the ball leave Kartik’s hand and land right in front of
Gour. He couldn’t do much. It was s fuller delivery and Gour mistimed the shot.
Rajesh then followed him when Pankaj bowled a near-yorker. I say ‘near’ because
when it was a very low-lying full-toss
when it crossed Rajesh’s bat. Undeflecetd it continued its trajectory and took
the stumps down. At this point of time Venki and Dharmendra played the role of stabilizers.
They did not let Team A’s bowlers have a run and played sensibly. They were
able to keep their wickets and also score runs. Venki retired and in came Abhijeet. He hit the ground running. He targeted the leg-region and most of his
runs came in the form of pull-shots. He was able to provide some acceleration in
the middle overs. The turning
point of the game came when Dharmendra got out. After his departure Team B kind
of lost the plot. It was aided by some fine bowling (read Pratik ) and
presence of mind displayed by Team A. When Pratik came in to bowl Team B was in
a fairly good shape. They had overs and batsmen too. They needed 12 runs in 24
balls. Pratik had something else in mind. He took a wicket on his first ball,
I think the batsman got clean bowled. I came in next. I tried to place the ball
on the off, instead it went up in the air and Kartik took a good catch. On a hat-trick, Pratik
came in firing on all cylinders and bowled fuller and faster. This had a similar outcome as the first ball. It was awesome! Team A
couldn't conceal their joy and they all came in running towards Pratik
hugging and jumping on him. On the other hand Team B stood there totally
dumbstruck. They didn't know what had hit them. This reminded
me of a Srilanka-South Africa match where Malinga took 4 wickets to completely
turn the match around. Pratik did something very similar. He did not get the
double hat-trick but he did the next best thing … he got the fourth wicket in
the same over. After this assault Abhijeet J tried to do his best, but the damage
was already done. In the end Venki was the lone man fighting. He played well
and concentrated on placement rather than try any heroics and maybe this did him in.
I think his wicket was claimed by Pratik who had him caught in the point
region. It was an amazing win by Team A. They had come out of nowhere and
snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They capitalized on an opportunity
that presented itself and did not let it go. Team B on the other hand squandered
off a perfectly good opportunity. They didn’t have anybody but themselves to blame. What the
bowlers earned was wasted by the batsmen.
In the second match, Team B batted first. I think Venki
opened the innings. Like previous innings he played quite well. He was
aggressive and was hitting in the right places. He, Rajesh and Partha played
their parts well. Another batsman who continued from where he left off in the
previous innings was Abhijeet J. As you saw he batted superbly in the first
innings targeting the leg region. This time he took it to a next level
and hit a six off Pratik … that itself speaks volumes. It was a slightly shorter
ball, but by no means low. It was slightly higher and he did well to
turn around and pull it. He continued to score more runs. If I am not mistaken
he retired. Team B was going at a good rate, they were consistently maintaining
an average run-rate of about 4.5-5. Dharmendra and Gour aided the team in this
quest. Gour declared his innings towards the end. In the final over Pratik
successfully tied Dharmendra and me down and we could manage only about 4-5
runs. Team B made 50 runs in 10 overs. They batted really well in this innings
not losing wickets in a hurry. They were
able to rotate strike, punish the lose ball and thus scored at a
healthy rate of 5 per over. They made 50 runs in 10 overs. Team A bowled well too. They were buoyed by their
performance in the first innings. This confidence made a world of difference and
this showed in their body language. They bowled more confidently and even
though they did not reproduce the miracle they pulled off in the first match,
they were able to control Team B and not let them go beyond 5 per over.
Team A’s strategy became evident right in the first over when they
scored a boundary. The support staff, including the umpire urged the batsmen to
go a bit easy as they had met the required run-rate and now anything more was
just gravy, which could be scored by not taking any chances. They maintained
this approach right through till the end. I clearly remember the run rate being
exactly 5 after every over. Just like Team B, they too played very well and did
not slump down. Previous innings’ stars were retained and came out in the
end. Vasant yet again starred in the end and staked claim at victory by
hitting a boundary. Buoyed with
confidence Team A was a totally different outfit in the second game outplaying
Team B in every department. While in the first match the batsmen did Team B in,
the second match could have been saved if the bowlers showed some courage. Here
Venki relied on his tried and tested trio of Dharmendra, Gour and himself, but
that too didn’t prove to be sufficient to stop the juggernaut that was Team A.
Some of the things that we haven't witnessed till now happened on that day. Both the teams actually went into a huddle after the first game in an effort to strategize. They
were very particular, not to let anybody from the opposing team listen in to their
conversation. Another thing that we haven’t seen is sledging. Ram did indeed
proclaim that he didn’t think he was sledging as he did not use any bad words,
but he amply exhibited how one could achieve this without using profanity. He singled
out Venki for some special treatment both while batting and fielding. Venki like
a good sport did not hold back and paid in full. Senthil returning after
nearly a month didn’t waste any time in getting back into the groove and targeted
Venki too. Every run, every wicket was cheered with high-fives becoming the
norm. In the first innings when Pratik got a hat-trick Siddharth nearly jumped
on him. Everybody from his team ran towards him and by the time his over was done
he had got half of Team B’s players in the dug-out.Team A was having a field day with Venki and his emotions. In fact they might have even used
it to get the better of him. Again, Ram lead this attack. Finally when it was all over
they wished him ‘Sweet Dreams’, which was kind of insult to injury as we all
know by now how Venki tends to spend his Sunday nights in the event of a loss …
tossing and turning thinking about ways how the match could have been saved!
Maybe Team A had this image in their mind while egging on and used it to
motivate themselves ... seeing their opponent squirm!!
Yesterday (Thursday, 6/19) we had a nice get together at Buffalo Wild Wings.
It was a ‘Bye-for-now-we-will-meet-soon’ party for Siddharth, who is moving to
the East coast. We had some wonderful company. For starters, our server was
super cute and very helpful! We started off in the main dining area and then
moved our base to the courtyard so that the smokers wouldn’t have to shuttle
back-and-forth. Also now we could talk at normal level and yet hear each other.
The mango-habanero wings were very spicy and after eating one Manoj displayed
how he would use it to set his office on fire the next day (you should ask him
the next time you meet him how his little experiment turned out). If one's eyes were a mirror to his/her inner soul …
then Gour was picture boy of this pithy … he was in sweet heaven after downing …
I am not sure … how many drinks and cocktails. Partha on the other hand stuck
to his drink and played the part of an observer except towards the end when
even he could not help himself from pitching in and making fun of Siddharth. Finally, Siddharth ended the evening with a very emotional speech which nearly had all of
us in tears … we were confused though whether it was due to some strong
emotions or the jokes which were doing the rounds … in any case the objective
was fulfilled. We also learnt that to get Ram talking you just need two glasses
of ….. COKE … Pepsi will also do. His speech lasted longer than Siddharth and
ended with Venki burying his face in his palms. Pankaj had his moment too, and
for him just one glass was enough. If any of you are looking to find the
culprit as to who ordered the habanero wings … I was sitting right besides
Pabkaj and Chaitanya when the server took down the order. Dharmendra like a
true Delhi-ite enjoyed his rum and coke while all of us were downing our
preferred beer (Gour joined him later with a cocktail of his own). Abhijeet and
Chadru preferred to maintain a low profile while taking in the evening and
enjoying what was going around tem. Overall it was a great evening and all of
us had a great time. I am sure it will go down in our memory and we won’t forget it
anytime soon. And its official … if you need to get Chaitanya and Manoj to any event … you just need to make sure the invitation has “DRINKS” spelled out
loud and clear in bold-face!!
In case you were wondering, we did talk about the upcoming game too,
the strategy, the team line-up and what needs to be done to win the game. I am
sure between Manoj and Venki we have a
sound leadership ably supported by thinking caps like Pankaj, Abhijeet and
Chandru. Best Wishes to all of us!!
Have a nice one.
Later.
Anand
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