Venki's Three Lives and Siddharth's Adieu

Team A: Pankaj, Partha, Siddharth, Chandru, Dharmendra and Abhijeet S

Team B: Venki, Pratik G, Vamshi, Abhijeet J, Pratik and Anand

Team B batted first. The highlight of Team B’s innings was a proclamation made by Pratik G right in the beginning when he demanded to open. It seems last time he played Venki suggested that he stay in the middle a bit more. Pratik G took that to heart and wanted to prove a point. So the two Pratiks opened the innings. They started cautiously but the combination didn’t last beyond the first over. Trying to get rid of Pankaj’s nagging deliveries Pratik tied to hit one, but it went straight down to Pankaj who took a beautiful low-lying catch. He was modest to suggest that it just stuck in his palms, but you can tell when they are difficult … trying to pick a low lying one on your follow-through at the end of the over is never easy. With setting Team B back by one Pankaj had accomplished his task. On the back-foot, Team B had to tread cautiously. Unfortunately this did not happen as they lost Abhijeet J in the very next over when he was clean bowled on the first ball. If I am not mistaken it was Siddharth who took his wicket. It was fast and in the block hole, Abhijeet couldn’t do much except rue the fact not having got his bat down soon enough. I followed Abhijeet J, both in terms of replacing him at the crease and then going back to the dug-out within a matter of few deliveries. I gave a top edge and returned to my fielding position. Wile all this was happening Pratik G was standing firm at the other end. Now he was joined by Venki in the middle. If Team B had any hopes of winning then this combination had to stick, they had to put their heads down and play cautiously. And that is exactly what they did. Venki and Pratik played really well and succeeded in getting the team out of the doldrums. Venki was very aggressive and Pratik concentrated more on placing. After putting 20 odd runs Pratik retired and Vamshi  went in to partner with Venki. It was now Team B’s turn to be on the top. Vamshi seemed to continue where he left off the week before. In repeating his feat from last Sunday, he even went dancing own the wicket and hit a six in the long on region. That was, maybe, the only time the ball crossed the boundary line (maybe on one more occasion). And again this time too he got out while trying to clear the boundary second time, but instead got caught at the boundary line. It was time for Pratik G to return. He and Venki continued to score at will. By the time their quota of 12 overs ended Team B had made 55 runs (or maybe 54 runs, requiring Team A to make 55 to win)

Siddharth and Chandru opened the innings for Team A. It was as if they were playing a scripted game Siddharth took on the aggressive role while Chandru concentrated on placing the ball. I remember being welcomed by a boundary and a two on my first couple of deliveries by Siddharth. As they say if you hit a boundary or a six on the very first ball you tend to have a upper hand over the bowler. It was absolutely true in this case. I never quite recovered and couldn’t convert the short deliveries to more fuller ones. Chandru and Siddharth played very well, but unfortunately Chandru was the first to get out. Abhijeet standing at first slip couldn’t get to the ball in time to catch it, but recovered well to collect it and send it to the bowler in time to get Chandru out. It was a good throw which found Chandru shy of his crease by a yard or so. I am not sure if Partha came in next or was it Pankaj. I think Partha because after a while Siddharth retired and Partha continued to play and was joined by Pankaj. But before Siddharth’s retirement Partha and Siddharth played very well.  I think after 4 overs Team A had made about 20 runs. They were going really well. I think Pankaj came in as a replacement after Siddharth retired. You could see that he was preparing to be there for the long haul. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry and was trying to gauge the ground and the playing conditions. One such delivery caught him by surprise. I am not sure if it was a slower or a faster one or whether it just rose, but while trying to just push it, the ball traveled straight to Venki, who did not commit any mistake (I think Venki took the catch, if not then he was the bowler … I distinctly remember Venki being an active participant in Pankaj’s departure, because something that happened in the second match caused Pankaj to smile from ear to ear). A few deliveries later it was time for Partha to depart. Team A had lost one of their main players and a well set batsmen within a few deliveries. This brought Team B to their feet. They believed this was the turning point in the game and started to play like they wanted to make it happen and go back to the dug out a happy bunch. In this scheme of things I am not sure when Dharmendra came in to bat, but I vividly remember witnessing a great cover drive where he opened the face of his bat to push it in the off. Abhijeet also liked it as we were discussing the shot standing on the boundary-line. Abhijeet came in as the last man and played some great cover drives. Seeing the way he was batting he should have come in a  bit early. If he would played like this it might have infused some much needed self-belief amongst Team A’s players. Siddharth returned in the end to give him company and they both tried to fight it out. I remember feeling a bit under pressure when Siddharth returned. Even though the asking rate was high, I thought maybe they might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately Siddharth got run out while truing to steal a single. Abhijeet was left alone to fight it out. In final over 15 runs were needed. He tried to be boisterous and played some brave shots. They didn’t travel and on two occasions went straight to Pankaj who valiantly tried to take running catches but had to cover  a lot of ground and so ended up conceding couple of runs. 11 runs were needed in 4 balls. On a no-ball (which was the second last ball) he was able to hit a boundary, it was a good shot which traveled high-up in the air. But in the he could take only one run on the last ball and Team B won the match.

In the second match Team A played first. Pankaj and Chandru opened the innings. Pankaj’s stance indicated that he meant business as he wanted to make up for his dismissal in the earlier match. He was quite aggressive and as Abhijeet pointed out was reading the deliveries very early on. He seemed to be hitting the balls on the rise, which spoke volumes of his reading the ball early enabling him to get into position to hit the ball in the region that he wanted. I remember couple of balls which were played beautifully on the leg. He appeared slightly bent with his left leg stretched out and right slightly crouched as he swung the bat starting at right hand top and stopping at left hand bottom playing a marvellous ground shot. He and Chandru played some very good shots and ran beautifully between the wickets Unfortunately Chandru could not stay for long and had to depart early when he got out in a similar fashion as in the previous match but this time he was trying to steal a two. They were really pushing the envelope and pulling off some great stunts. Abhijeet joined Pankaj and played some great shots on the off, very similar to the first innings. He too got out early when Dharmendra took a beautiful catch at point. I think Partha was the next to follow. While wickets were falling at one end Pankaj stood like a rock at the other, partnering with his team-mates to put up a defendable sore on the board. Partha gave him good company. Of Team B’s bowlers Pratik was the most impressive and he gave a good testimony of this by claiming two wickets in the same over (he would take it to the next level the following Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!)  when he took Partha and Pankaj to put a major dent in Team A’s ambitions of putting a big total. Siddharth came towards the end and hit the ground running. But he couldn’t do much and I think he too got out while trying to get the extra run. After 10 overs Team A had made 44 runs.

Team B again lost couple of wickets early which set them on the back-foot. Vamshi either opened or came one-down. He seemed d to apply brakes to the downfall of wickets and scored some runs quickly. He displayed good running between the wickets while hitting some good shots. He retired early which got Pratik to the crease. This time he did not open as he was tired from bowling 2-3 overs during which he took 2 wickets in an over. Remember what I mentioned earlier about Pankaj smiling ear-to-ear, well this is what happened... With Team B in a slight fix Venki came in to bat. While walking towards the crease itself he started muttering under his breath requesting Pankaj to bowl couple of short balls. In the first match too I remember him making a similar request to Dharmendra. At that time he was bit clearer asking Dharmendra to bowl 3 short balls! Coming to present match, I am not sure what was going through Pankaj’s mind. He bowled one straight down. From where I was standing I couldn’t see whether it was a short ball or a good length delivery, but I could see that it was kind of slightly below waist and was straight down the wicket going for the middle stump. Venki tried to pull it and completely missed the line of the ball. If I am not mistaken it may have been a slightly slower  delivery too, because I think Venki’s bat had already passed when the ball got to him. It was sweet justice for Pankaj who couldn’t conceal his joy and thus the ear-to-ear smile. With Venki;s departure Team A were in the same position as Team B in the first match. If they played their cards right and bowled well they could snatch this match away from Team B. I can say one thing Dharmendra was bowling very fast. I remember my first ball, I thought I would just play it safe and not hit. So I had my bat to the ground, but before I could raise my bat to hit the ball, it had already pictured and hit my bat voluntarily.  This was a good sign of taste of things or deliveries to follow. This change in bowling helped him bag two wickets, both clean bowled later in the innings, which kind of sealed the deal for his team. Earlier Pratik and Vamshi decided to keep things flowing where Pratik asked Vamshi to play his natural game and hit while he would keep the strike rotating. This lasted for couple of overs after which Pratik was claimed by Dharmendra as one of his wickets in that fatal over. In the end Team A won the match comfortably.

As far as highlights are concerned I don’t remember much now (as one week has already passed), but I do remember Venki getting 3 lives and both Venki and Siddharth trying to fight over whether this fact should get immortalized in our blog or lie buried in our collective memory never to be invoked. I will let you be the judge … oops!

Siddharth took all of us by surprise when he announced that he is leaving. He is moving to the east coast for work. All of us left the field thinking about Siddharth and how we will miss his passion and aggression! Please wish hm luck!

Overall it was an amazing outing and I would even rate as one of our best but now that I know what happened today I would say it was second best. That's because today I don’t feel like writing after what append on the field in the morning. I have been thinking about the game and what went wrong and what we could have done differently. This kind of emotional jostling and mind wrenching is reserved for external matches not for internal friendly ones … so you can imagine what kind of game we might have had today. I will try to write about it so that all of us can savor the morning once again (though for some it might be bitter-sweet!).

We have tournament next week. Chandru, Venki or Rajesh will send out the final 6. Here’s Wishing to the team!! Let’s all try to show and extend support to our fighting eleven!!!

Have a nice week ahead.

Later.

Anand