I have already discussed in my previous blog on cricket basics that I have grown up playing cricket. Cricket has really been with me through all my ups and downs. In this extravaganza I would focus on my best moments on the cricket field. There was a time when I was going nowhere either with my studies or cricket & I had to take a major step in choosing one of the two…I had to choose studies. My parents would often say a pen is better suited in my left hand than a cricket bat. Cricket thus became a hobby and I have to spend most of my time on studies instead of being a professional cricketer. In this extravaganza I would only concentrate on school and college cricket…& not on any professional levels where I played. I hope people would enjoy my experiences just as I enjoyed those moments.
School cricket: class 2 (DAV School)
As I told in my cricket basics is played in almost every nook and corner of India. Memory goes back to a small school ground. We have the games period of 40 minutes. I, first time captain of the team won the toss and chose to bat. I must specify about the ground. The ground was of around 60 meters straight and 10-15 meters on the right side and 40-45 meters on the leg side of a right handed batsman. I am a left hander and being a left hander meant my leg side boundary was only 10-15 meters. I clearly remember the sweat of those opposition players who couldn’t restrict me scoring 4’s and sixes on my leg side. Like any young kid being a captain I would open the batting, that day I gave my best batting performance as I scored 39 runs with total team score 53 in 5 overs. Unlike the batting I would generally bowl the last over when we had to bowl. That day the opposition team had scored 44 runs in 4 overs and they needed10 runs in the last over. I had the ball in my hand…had only one thing in mind bowl as fast as I could and hit the wickets…it was a dream over as I took 4 wickets in the entire over and the other team could only score 1 runs in those final 6 balls. First time as a captain I had done well both in batting and bowling…
School cricket: Class 8 (holy cross school)
By then I was known as a good cricketer by one and all…in the bid for the captaincy I stepped down as I thought I was not too good in marshalling the troops and thus would help the captain (ravi) in talking decisions in the vice captain’s role. The captain had high hopes on me as such I would generally open the innings in batting…and would also open the bowling attack along with the fastest and by far the best bowler (irshad) of the team…I have fond memories of that that day when I broke the glass of the physics lab with a six and the entire class was punished as nobody uttered my name. Previously on that day I had already hit one ball outside the school boundary which got lost. We were chasing a steep target of 71 of 8 overs. I didn’t do too well with the ball that day giving away 19 runs of my 2 overs and talking just a wicket. I had it on my mind I would take the revenge when I get the chance to bat…on the first over itself I hit 2 sixes…it was the 4th over when I hit the ball to the physics lab with our team score 46 for 2 wickets…the match was not completed as the entire class was barred for playing cricket for one week. Throughout the week everybody would only speak about my ferocious batting…they would tell me nobody wanted the ball in hand to ball against me as I was in devastating mood…well those days were by far the best days as we had nothing else to talk except the cricket.
School cricket: Class 11 (KV BKP (ARMY) School )
Throughout my school life up till class 10 I was more famous for cricket than any other thing. Being a left hander I always had a better rating as a batsman as I was the only lefthander in the class (up till class 10). Many people who would appreciate me for my batting and bowling but never had any female following…things changed as I came to a new school. Nobody knew me and as such no one knew how do I bat or ball…I would take you to a cricket match between the class 11 (science stream) and class 11 (arts stream).unlike in my previous school where everybody knew about my cricketing skills. I was deep down in the batting order…with all those renowned science students coming up for batting. I had heard arts were the tough team to beat and as records say the arts team had won almost all the previous matches. The arts team batted first and scored 63 runs in 8 stipulated overs. As far as science team in concerned captain as well as the vice captain were back to the pavilion in the beginning of the 3rd over with a score of 13 for 5 wickets. Everyone was sad as all the batters were out. Captain of the team was down on confidence as our team was on the brink of another loss to the arts team. I came in to bat this was my first appearance…the first ball I dispatched to the boundary on the leg side….the next ball, again a boundary…team morale was down in spite of me hitting the boundaries on 2 successive balls…there was not much cheers in the science team as the target was steep, as I continued to hit boundaries and sixes out of the ground slowly but surely the team confidence grew…and they started cheering me up…the entire science section was behind me…to my amazement I saw 3 girls of science section sitting outside the ground and clapping for me…I don’t know what happened to me…I was very high on confidence…the next ball I pulled to a six…and raised the bat to all those who were cheering and clapping for me…neither did I score a century nor a half century but I made sure science team was on course to chase down the runs…after 6 overs science team were at 52 for 7 wickets. That means we needed another 12 runs from the next 12 balls…I was at the crease. The best bowler of the arts team had the ball in his hand…1st ball on my legs..i whacked it to a boundary…needed 8 runs from 11 balls…next delivery was fast and straight to my abdomen I got hit…I fell down…after a while I stood up to face the next ball which was a full toss on the off stumps…I glided it another 4…needed 4 runs from 9 balls….i could see the bowler was tense and he came in with his next ball I smashed the ball straight, straight to the bowler (caught and bowled)…out…the arts team yelled on seeing the back of me. 8 wickets down with 4 runs to win…8 balls left. No runs were scored on the last two balls of the over. Last over science team needed 4 runs…first ball was wide…now science needed 3 from 6 balls…the next 2 balls were dots as no runs could be scored..3 runs from 4 balls…next ball batsman could somehow get the bat to the ball… And ran for a run…3 balls 2 runs…next ball …bowled…another wicket fell…9 wickets down. 2 balls and 2 runs to win…the batsman who came in next was also a left hander…I was shouting on top of my voice giving him indications where to hit…the second last ball was bowled he could somehow hit the ball on the offside and ran for a single, there was a slight misfielding and almost everyone shouted run and the runners completed the 2 run…thus 2 runs were scored…science team won the match…it was a memorable day for me, as captain lifted me over his shoulders and marched me across the ground…I could see everybody cheering for me…really a memorable match…
College cricket: 3rd year of my engineering
Venue: tennis court, occasion: HPL tournament
Final year and third year players were mixed and 8 teams were formed. The team which I belonged was considered the weakest team of the tournament. Let me tell you about some rules of that tournament each team had a maximum of 8 players. While fielding only 7 players would be in the field and the 8th player would fetch the ball whenever the ball is hit out of the court. Matches would be of 7 overs each side. Bowling restrictions: one bowler can bowl a maximum of 3 overs, while the other bowlers can bowl a maximum of 2 overs. All the players of the team could bowl if they wished to including the player who is not in the field and fetching the ball from outside (but as there were only 7 overs per side only 7 bowlers can bowl at maximum and the 8th person of the team can’t ball). Batting wise there were far more restrictions than bowling. Hitting on the back, leg and off side had penalties if the ball crosses the 20 meters long fence (without touching the fence) surrounding the court, the batsman would be declared out. There were no runs on the back side. You can score runs on the leg and off side given a condition you cannot clear the fences on a single go. If you hit the fence directly you score 6 runs and if you hit the fence after a bounce you score 4 runs. On the straight there were no such rules…you can directly hit the fence as well as clear the fence to score 6 runs, if the ball goes to the fence after a bounce you score 4 runs. You can run as many runs as you want when the ball in within the court…8 teams were divided into two group of 4 teams. The top two teams of the group would reach the semifinals and the winner of each semifinal would play among themselves in the final to decide the winner of the tournament. I think I have given enough rules now I should start with the tournament…
As I said our team was considered the weakest team and we lost the first match badly as the entire team was out after scoring 19 runs. We lost the match in the 2nd over itself as the other team scored the 19 runs in just 2 overs. We were down and after the first match our run rate suggested we only had a glimpse of reaching the semis even if we win both the group matches. 2nd match we had to win to stay in the competition…well it was my day I got 3 wickets and gave only 9 runs of my 2 overs. We won the match handsomely. I was the man of the match with my heroics with the ball. Our next match was the last match of the group stages. Two other teams of the group had already won 2 of the 3 matches and were almost certain in the semis…we only had an outside chance if we win the match with a big margin. We did what we had to; we bowled out the opposition in just 17 runs. I got 3 wickets were as the captain of the team got 2 wickets. I was promoted up in the batting order to score the 18 runs as quickly as possible. We won the match in the 2.1 overs…Captain of the team (from the final year) scoring 10 runs and I scored 7 runs to win the match (1 run extra for wide). Captain was given the man of the match for his 2 wickets and 10 runs. Thus 3 teams ended with 2 victories of their 3 matches...the managing committee decided to have a knock out match between us and the other team of the group who had a similar run rate to decide the 2nd semifinalist. It was again a dream match for me as we chased down the highest total in the tournament of 84 runs. I scored 26 of just 9 balls and took 2 wickets in that match.2nd man of the match for me. In the semis we had the toughest team of the tournament who had won all the three matches of their group stages…another dream run for me…our captain won the toss and chose to bat. I opened the batting with the captain…scored 37 runs of 17 balls with the entire team score 72 off 7 overs. Then with the ball took 2 wickets of my 2 overs and restricted the other team to 54 all out in 6th over…3rd man of the match for me. We were in the finals nobody would have thought we would reach so far. In the finals we had to play the same team to which we lost in the group stages. Everybody in the team believed we can take the revenge. I was the leading wicket taker of the tournament with 10 wickets and the 2nd highest run scorer of the tournament…just like our team nobody thought I would be one of the fore front runner for the man of the series. The person who was leading the charts in the highest runs in the tournament…was out and we defeated them in the semis…I was only 3 runs behind him. In the highest wicket taker’s chart one of the bowler from the team who reached the final was close to me by taking 9 wickets…And was 11 runs behind me in the highest scoring charts… man of the series was never an issue for me I never thought about it… winning the final and the trophy was my aim… but the players from the opposition had plans for me…to get me out as early as possible and not to give me any wickets…I must say whatever happened in the finals was just because the opposition did a wrong planning…their intentions were more focused to stop me rather than the team. In the finals we won the toss and our captain had no hesitations to bat first…there was talk in the team to send me in the middle order as I could be handy in the last…but the captain persisted to send me in the opening slot …I was facing ….the first ball I whacked it to a 6 straight over the head of the bowler…everybody cheered but team mates asked me to play calmly…one of team mate approached me and said if you stay till the end we are going to win…don’t play rash cricket…play defensively we want you till the end…I tried to defend the next ball it got the edge of my bat off to the knees and straight to the fielder. I got out with just 6 runs on the board off just 2 balls. We got to a modest total of 53 off 7 overs…but we never lost the hope…no team in the tournament had defended such a low total the lowest was 58 which was defended by just 1 run. as I told whatever happened in the finals was result of their poor planning…the opposition batsmen came with a plan of not giving me any wicket so that I may not get the man of the series…it was fair decision to some extent as 53 was a low score in the tournament…all the credit goes to my captain as he gave me 3 overs to bowl in the finals ( in the entire tournament I would only ball two overs as only one bowler could ball 3 overs)…after 5 overs the opposition team were cruising to victory with 41 runs in board…captain gave me the ball for my 3 over as I had only given 7 runs in my first 2 overs…the batsman kept on defending my ball…so that they may not get out as my over ended the score was 43. In the last over they needed 11 runs…in the effort to score runs quickly they lost 3 wickets (one of them was a run out of my fielding) and could only reach to 49. We not only won the match but also the tournament …i didn’t get any wicket in that match…but I was still the highest wicket taker in the tournament( 10 wickets)…as well as the highest run scorer thanks to those 6 runs that I made in the finals…(97 runs)… I was given the man of the series for my all round performance with the bat, ball and in the field (2 run outs—and especially the crucial run out in the finals)….a dream tournament for me…
The next match which I played after my man of the series performance (nearly after 10 months as I graduated to final year of engineering)…I got the man of the match in the first game of the tournament…(one of my friend ( Shobit) quoted: after man of the series performance you start with a man of the match…are you eying for another man of the series?) but that wasn’t to be as we lost the matches and couldn’t even qualify for the semis…team doesn’t depend on a single player but a team…and if a team doesn’t perform well…you cannot hope to win…you cannot depend on just one or two players to win matches for you…every person in the team is equally important for a team’s success…I was in final year then…and that loss in the group stages meant I would be focusing on my studies and thus that was the last time I played cricket…
Hope you enjoyed …my cricket extravaganza…would turn up shortly with my next blog.
As I told in my cricket basics is played in almost every nook and corner of India. Memory goes back to a small school ground. We have the games period of 40 minutes. I, first time captain of the team won the toss and chose to bat. I must specify about the ground. The ground was of around 60 meters straight and 10-15 meters on the right side and 40-45 meters on the leg side of a right handed batsman. I am a left hander and being a left hander meant my leg side boundary was only 10-15 meters. I clearly remember the sweat of those opposition players who couldn’t restrict me scoring 4’s and sixes on my leg side. Like any young kid being a captain I would open the batting, that day I gave my best batting performance as I scored 39 runs with total team score 53 in 5 overs. Unlike the batting I would generally bowl the last over when we had to bowl. That day the opposition team had scored 44 runs in 4 overs and they needed10 runs in the last over. I had the ball in my hand…had only one thing in mind bowl as fast as I could and hit the wickets…it was a dream over as I took 4 wickets in the entire over and the other team could only score 1 runs in those final 6 balls. First time as a captain I had done well both in batting and bowling…
School cricket: Class 8 (holy cross school)
By then I was known as a good cricketer by one and all…in the bid for the captaincy I stepped down as I thought I was not too good in marshalling the troops and thus would help the captain (ravi) in talking decisions in the vice captain’s role. The captain had high hopes on me as such I would generally open the innings in batting…and would also open the bowling attack along with the fastest and by far the best bowler (irshad) of the team…I have fond memories of that that day when I broke the glass of the physics lab with a six and the entire class was punished as nobody uttered my name. Previously on that day I had already hit one ball outside the school boundary which got lost. We were chasing a steep target of 71 of 8 overs. I didn’t do too well with the ball that day giving away 19 runs of my 2 overs and talking just a wicket. I had it on my mind I would take the revenge when I get the chance to bat…on the first over itself I hit 2 sixes…it was the 4th over when I hit the ball to the physics lab with our team score 46 for 2 wickets…the match was not completed as the entire class was barred for playing cricket for one week. Throughout the week everybody would only speak about my ferocious batting…they would tell me nobody wanted the ball in hand to ball against me as I was in devastating mood…well those days were by far the best days as we had nothing else to talk except the cricket.
School cricket: Class 11 (KV BKP (ARMY) School )
Throughout my school life up till class 10 I was more famous for cricket than any other thing. Being a left hander I always had a better rating as a batsman as I was the only lefthander in the class (up till class 10). Many people who would appreciate me for my batting and bowling but never had any female following…things changed as I came to a new school. Nobody knew me and as such no one knew how do I bat or ball…I would take you to a cricket match between the class 11 (science stream) and class 11 (arts stream).unlike in my previous school where everybody knew about my cricketing skills. I was deep down in the batting order…with all those renowned science students coming up for batting. I had heard arts were the tough team to beat and as records say the arts team had won almost all the previous matches. The arts team batted first and scored 63 runs in 8 stipulated overs. As far as science team in concerned captain as well as the vice captain were back to the pavilion in the beginning of the 3rd over with a score of 13 for 5 wickets. Everyone was sad as all the batters were out. Captain of the team was down on confidence as our team was on the brink of another loss to the arts team. I came in to bat this was my first appearance…the first ball I dispatched to the boundary on the leg side….the next ball, again a boundary…team morale was down in spite of me hitting the boundaries on 2 successive balls…there was not much cheers in the science team as the target was steep, as I continued to hit boundaries and sixes out of the ground slowly but surely the team confidence grew…and they started cheering me up…the entire science section was behind me…to my amazement I saw 3 girls of science section sitting outside the ground and clapping for me…I don’t know what happened to me…I was very high on confidence…the next ball I pulled to a six…and raised the bat to all those who were cheering and clapping for me…neither did I score a century nor a half century but I made sure science team was on course to chase down the runs…after 6 overs science team were at 52 for 7 wickets. That means we needed another 12 runs from the next 12 balls…I was at the crease. The best bowler of the arts team had the ball in his hand…1st ball on my legs..i whacked it to a boundary…needed 8 runs from 11 balls…next delivery was fast and straight to my abdomen I got hit…I fell down…after a while I stood up to face the next ball which was a full toss on the off stumps…I glided it another 4…needed 4 runs from 9 balls….i could see the bowler was tense and he came in with his next ball I smashed the ball straight, straight to the bowler (caught and bowled)…out…the arts team yelled on seeing the back of me. 8 wickets down with 4 runs to win…8 balls left. No runs were scored on the last two balls of the over. Last over science team needed 4 runs…first ball was wide…now science needed 3 from 6 balls…the next 2 balls were dots as no runs could be scored..3 runs from 4 balls…next ball batsman could somehow get the bat to the ball… And ran for a run…3 balls 2 runs…next ball …bowled…another wicket fell…9 wickets down. 2 balls and 2 runs to win…the batsman who came in next was also a left hander…I was shouting on top of my voice giving him indications where to hit…the second last ball was bowled he could somehow hit the ball on the offside and ran for a single, there was a slight misfielding and almost everyone shouted run and the runners completed the 2 run…thus 2 runs were scored…science team won the match…it was a memorable day for me, as captain lifted me over his shoulders and marched me across the ground…I could see everybody cheering for me…really a memorable match…
College cricket: 3rd year of my engineering
Venue: tennis court, occasion: HPL tournament
Final year and third year players were mixed and 8 teams were formed. The team which I belonged was considered the weakest team of the tournament. Let me tell you about some rules of that tournament each team had a maximum of 8 players. While fielding only 7 players would be in the field and the 8th player would fetch the ball whenever the ball is hit out of the court. Matches would be of 7 overs each side. Bowling restrictions: one bowler can bowl a maximum of 3 overs, while the other bowlers can bowl a maximum of 2 overs. All the players of the team could bowl if they wished to including the player who is not in the field and fetching the ball from outside (but as there were only 7 overs per side only 7 bowlers can bowl at maximum and the 8th person of the team can’t ball). Batting wise there were far more restrictions than bowling. Hitting on the back, leg and off side had penalties if the ball crosses the 20 meters long fence (without touching the fence) surrounding the court, the batsman would be declared out. There were no runs on the back side. You can score runs on the leg and off side given a condition you cannot clear the fences on a single go. If you hit the fence directly you score 6 runs and if you hit the fence after a bounce you score 4 runs. On the straight there were no such rules…you can directly hit the fence as well as clear the fence to score 6 runs, if the ball goes to the fence after a bounce you score 4 runs. You can run as many runs as you want when the ball in within the court…8 teams were divided into two group of 4 teams. The top two teams of the group would reach the semifinals and the winner of each semifinal would play among themselves in the final to decide the winner of the tournament. I think I have given enough rules now I should start with the tournament…
As I said our team was considered the weakest team and we lost the first match badly as the entire team was out after scoring 19 runs. We lost the match in the 2nd over itself as the other team scored the 19 runs in just 2 overs. We were down and after the first match our run rate suggested we only had a glimpse of reaching the semis even if we win both the group matches. 2nd match we had to win to stay in the competition…well it was my day I got 3 wickets and gave only 9 runs of my 2 overs. We won the match handsomely. I was the man of the match with my heroics with the ball. Our next match was the last match of the group stages. Two other teams of the group had already won 2 of the 3 matches and were almost certain in the semis…we only had an outside chance if we win the match with a big margin. We did what we had to; we bowled out the opposition in just 17 runs. I got 3 wickets were as the captain of the team got 2 wickets. I was promoted up in the batting order to score the 18 runs as quickly as possible. We won the match in the 2.1 overs…Captain of the team (from the final year) scoring 10 runs and I scored 7 runs to win the match (1 run extra for wide). Captain was given the man of the match for his 2 wickets and 10 runs. Thus 3 teams ended with 2 victories of their 3 matches...the managing committee decided to have a knock out match between us and the other team of the group who had a similar run rate to decide the 2nd semifinalist. It was again a dream match for me as we chased down the highest total in the tournament of 84 runs. I scored 26 of just 9 balls and took 2 wickets in that match.2nd man of the match for me. In the semis we had the toughest team of the tournament who had won all the three matches of their group stages…another dream run for me…our captain won the toss and chose to bat. I opened the batting with the captain…scored 37 runs of 17 balls with the entire team score 72 off 7 overs. Then with the ball took 2 wickets of my 2 overs and restricted the other team to 54 all out in 6th over…3rd man of the match for me. We were in the finals nobody would have thought we would reach so far. In the finals we had to play the same team to which we lost in the group stages. Everybody in the team believed we can take the revenge. I was the leading wicket taker of the tournament with 10 wickets and the 2nd highest run scorer of the tournament…just like our team nobody thought I would be one of the fore front runner for the man of the series. The person who was leading the charts in the highest runs in the tournament…was out and we defeated them in the semis…I was only 3 runs behind him. In the highest wicket taker’s chart one of the bowler from the team who reached the final was close to me by taking 9 wickets…And was 11 runs behind me in the highest scoring charts… man of the series was never an issue for me I never thought about it… winning the final and the trophy was my aim… but the players from the opposition had plans for me…to get me out as early as possible and not to give me any wickets…I must say whatever happened in the finals was just because the opposition did a wrong planning…their intentions were more focused to stop me rather than the team. In the finals we won the toss and our captain had no hesitations to bat first…there was talk in the team to send me in the middle order as I could be handy in the last…but the captain persisted to send me in the opening slot …I was facing ….the first ball I whacked it to a 6 straight over the head of the bowler…everybody cheered but team mates asked me to play calmly…one of team mate approached me and said if you stay till the end we are going to win…don’t play rash cricket…play defensively we want you till the end…I tried to defend the next ball it got the edge of my bat off to the knees and straight to the fielder. I got out with just 6 runs on the board off just 2 balls. We got to a modest total of 53 off 7 overs…but we never lost the hope…no team in the tournament had defended such a low total the lowest was 58 which was defended by just 1 run. as I told whatever happened in the finals was result of their poor planning…the opposition batsmen came with a plan of not giving me any wicket so that I may not get the man of the series…it was fair decision to some extent as 53 was a low score in the tournament…all the credit goes to my captain as he gave me 3 overs to bowl in the finals ( in the entire tournament I would only ball two overs as only one bowler could ball 3 overs)…after 5 overs the opposition team were cruising to victory with 41 runs in board…captain gave me the ball for my 3 over as I had only given 7 runs in my first 2 overs…the batsman kept on defending my ball…so that they may not get out as my over ended the score was 43. In the last over they needed 11 runs…in the effort to score runs quickly they lost 3 wickets (one of them was a run out of my fielding) and could only reach to 49. We not only won the match but also the tournament …i didn’t get any wicket in that match…but I was still the highest wicket taker in the tournament( 10 wickets)…as well as the highest run scorer thanks to those 6 runs that I made in the finals…(97 runs)… I was given the man of the series for my all round performance with the bat, ball and in the field (2 run outs—and especially the crucial run out in the finals)….a dream tournament for me…
The next match which I played after my man of the series performance (nearly after 10 months as I graduated to final year of engineering)…I got the man of the match in the first game of the tournament…(one of my friend ( Shobit) quoted: after man of the series performance you start with a man of the match…are you eying for another man of the series?) but that wasn’t to be as we lost the matches and couldn’t even qualify for the semis…team doesn’t depend on a single player but a team…and if a team doesn’t perform well…you cannot hope to win…you cannot depend on just one or two players to win matches for you…every person in the team is equally important for a team’s success…I was in final year then…and that loss in the group stages meant I would be focusing on my studies and thus that was the last time I played cricket…
Hope you enjoyed …my cricket extravaganza…would turn up shortly with my next blog.
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