The Infosys Hyderabad Cricket League Experience

This post of mine is not as much of a “post” as it is a “rant/crib/blabber”, whichever one you like to choose. So, go ahead with that in mind as there might not be anything you find interesting in here.

It was the evening of June 4th, 2010, when I was answering the question, “Man, 5 wickets in a 12 over game. Don’t you think that is a bit too much?” I was in the post match presentation of our first match and it was the first game for me in Infosys Hyderabad. Before the game I was not sure if I will play or not and I was more than happy to see my name in the playing XI. After that there was no looking back, as I took a good catch at the third man boundary and another sharp one at short mid wicket.In between I was called up to bowl the 8th over(I myself was surprised as I expected myself to be needed only as a back up bowler, if one of the regulars fail). I started off with a wide, a front foot no ball and the free hit that followed was slogged over covers for a boundary. So, I had conceded 6 runs off 1 ball and cricket didn’t seem to be all that easy a game then. However, that was the time when things turned around and I ended up getting 4 wickets in my first two overs, conceding 8 runs.I had accounted for both the icon players of MFG – Tigers and their captain as well. My third over was the last of the innings and I did get a bit carried away while bowling that, giving away 20 runs and taking a wicket. Hence, my debut finished with figures of 3-0-28-5. 9 runs an over is about par score here at the small Infosys cricket ground so I was over the moon with my performance, which eventually earned me the man of the match award. We were chasing a target of 93 from 12 overs and we were home in the 8th over itself, thanks to a stroke filled 58 off 29 balls from our captain-wicket keeper- opener, Atul Sir.

Things haven’t been that smooth afterwards and in our next game against The Aryans.  I was called upon to bowl when both their openers were set. Our opening bowlers had completely lost the plot and after 4 overs The Aryans had a score of 55/0 and things weren’t looking good for us. Bowling changes were not working and I was called upon to bowl from the ESA end(the same end from which I took 5 wickets). I started off with my customary wide outside the off stump  and then a good length ball that took off like anything, with the keeper(standing up) barely managing to hold on to that. The next good length I bowled was slogged over covers for a boundary, resulting in me over pitching the next one, which sailed over mid off for a six in no time! I was taken for 14 runs in that over. Statistics in cricket are funny and they don’t tell you the complete story. If someone was present at the ground and watched me bowl the over he would have realised that I had bowled two bad balls, one of which was hit for a six and a double was taken off the other one. Apart from that, I had barely strayed in my line, unlike our so called “strike bowlers” who fed the batsmen on the leg stump during the powerplay overs, with packed off side fields! I did not get another over after that and I knew that the captain was losing his faith in me. We conceded 121 runs in 12 overs and, given the batting we have got, we thought it was chasable easily. Our makeshift opener Anupam got out the first ball and then in the second over their captain, Mayank, ripped the heart of our batting apart when he took a hat trick and we were 4 down for 5 runs after the second over and the game seemed as good as over. However, we knew deep down that all 11 of us can hit the ball decently and the fact that we scored 106 runs off 10 overs after that would testify to that. We lost the game by 9 runs.After the game all of us bowlers got a good dressing down from our captain and the agenda for next practice session was “no one will bowl at the leg stump, come what may”. I stuck to that but in the process I could not get out of my old habit of over pitching or under pitching. What people don’t understand is that when you bowl in nets, you’re playing on a mat where the ball skids through but the bounce is not true, i.e. the bounce gets somewhat suppressed. When you’re playing on a pitch, the ball tends to bounce and carry a lot better. Hence, what is good length on a matting wicket might end up getting slaughtered in the match. However, after the practice my bowling was summarized as inconsistent. True, I had not bowled any wide, be it outside the leg stump or off stump.  

Our last and final league match was on June 22nd against HRD – Indians, the team that are billed up to be the tournament favourites and which is captained by my favourite player in the tournament, Sumit Sehrawat. 15 minutes before the match I came to know that I was left out of the playing 11. Kishore tried to convince me that I was “rested” but he wasn’t fooling anybody. I mean, you don’t “rest” a player when you go into a match knowing that a win will secure a place in the next round. I had that feeling of being left out right after the nets on the morning of the match but what shocked me was the guy who was my replacement… Harsha. My bowling in the nets was summed up as “over pitched” and his was “wayward”. It did show in the match as well, when he was called upon to bowl the second over and ended up giving away 13 runs (after our “strike bowler” Davis was taken for 13 in the first over as well). We again ended up giving away 50+ in the 4 powerplay overs and things weren’t looking great. Then came Ravi Dubey, our second icon player who had never bowled in the nets due to a back injury. He contained Sumit brilliantly and was our best bowler for the match. Our bowlers again pulled it back in the later stages and we restricted HRD – Indians to 111, a perfectly chasable score! Our batsmen started the chase well and we were left to get 43 off the final 5 overs with more than half of our side left to bat and two of the senior pros, Kishore and Ramesh(vice captain) at the crease. For some reason they were happy to take singles rather than trying to go hard at them and we were left to get 31 off the last 18 balls. That came down to 20 off 12 but now the problem was that Sumit had one over left.  He gifted us a boundrary off an overthrow and we were left to get 10 off the last over. It came down to 4 off 4, 3 off 3, 2 off 2 and then Madhu was run out in attempting what should have been a single easily. The match eventually ended in a tie. We are now dependent on the result of the last league match of our group, The Aryans vs MFG Tigers on 28th June, to see if we will progress to quarter finals.

The bowlers were again in the firing line in the post match talk by our captain but in all honesty, it was the batsmen’s fault. If the bowlers gave away so many runs initially, they only brought us back by restricting the opponents to 111. At one time HRD looked to  be set for a 140+ score and that would have been out of reach for us.  Our captain gave away his wicket after a well made 35 and the other so called experienced batsmen failed to steer us home. After the match we were told that “no one will play for charity” and performance will be the only critieria for selection.

In hindsight, yes, it is a team that plays and it is a team that wins or loses. Being left out of a playing 11 was a first for me and that will always haunt me.I do not have any personal grudges from anyone in the team and having watched all the teams play, I genuinely believe that our team has it to win the cup. What hurt me was the manner in which I was dropped. They keep on telling you “its ok if you over pitch or bowl wide on off stump” but please don’t bowl anything on the legs. In the first game, I was fearless, I was not thinking of anything else but bowling my best and at times experimenting, which got me the wickets. However, now things are different and “playing for my place” will always be at the back of my mind, even if I don’t want to think about it. For someone who has always been in charge of whichever team he’s played for, right from the junior school days to his college, for someone who was the only one from first year playing in the inter branch cricket tournament and forced his way into the team at the cost of settled seniors, this is a bit too much to take. Except for my college inter branch cricket team, I’ve always been the captain at whichever level we’ve played and today, when I’m dropped for someone who’s ready with childish excuses every now and then, it really hurts. On top of that you don’t have anyone to talk about these things either. However much I try to take my mind away from it, it just keeps coming back to haunt me. As of now, its fingers crossed for the next game and I hope some common sense prevails in the next selection, given we progress to quarter finals.

Another T20 Loss.. hopefully things will only improve from here on

It was an agonising loss to the Kiwis yet again but it was heartening to see the Indian side claw back into the game after they were outclassed for the first 30 overs of the game.

Many ifs and buts would be raised but the fact is that had there been a normal mid off for the last ball, the game would have gone into the super over.
However, these are indications that things would only get better from here on so lets hope the worst part of the tour is past us.

There's space for all forms of Cricket!

After a month long of tonking the ball in a pre determined manner, slogging the good length deliveries over mid wicket,going for big shots right from the first ball and encouraging the belief that being a bowler means death(especially in the sub continent) the past week has served a pleasant change to a genuine cricket lover.

England,the world's most tradational venue and one of the few countries which actually has a well defined "season" of International Cricket, played hosts to the Kiwis and since the first test overlapped completely with the IPL, there wasn't much focus on it.It was only in the third test that I sat back in a relaxed mood to be taken by the charm of good old Test Cricket.Sadly, the Kiwis lost that by an innings and 8 runs but the result is not the talking point.It is about the feel of watching test cricket, the joy that one gets when a Ryan Sidebottom takes a 6 wicket haul to dismiss the kiwis or a Jacob Oram makes a fighting century at a rate much less than run a ball in swinging conditions at Lord's to take his side to a formidable total. Over the last two months we've witnessed so much of T20 that we've forgotton how much fun we can derive when a bowler's teasing the opposition with his swing, when batsmen are afraid to touch the ball in the "corridor of uncertainly" and when the ugly looking slog sweep is just not employed.

However,the future of Test matches was never under threat from T20, but that of 50 over cricket was.Today was India's opening match in the Kitplay cup, hosted by Bangladesh, against Pakistan and going by the fun it provided for at least 80 overs,I dont think any form of cricket is under threat by any other.All of them have a niche for themselves and they have their own audience.However, I must admit that now the common audience would be very few. The die hard, traditional fans would not get as much pleasure from a slogged six by a Swapnil Asnodkar as they would get by watching Rahul Dravid play a perfect cover drive or a Sachin Tendulkar playing a straight drive back past the bowler which almost hits the stumps.

It would be wrong to say that cricket is the loser in the long run.No. If anything, cricket is gaining audience worldwide with the invention of IPL as it was broadcast successfully in over 170 countries in the world!And dont even think about Indian audience turning their back to it,it just can NEVER happen

IPL is here to stay!!!

Its been just over a week since the Indian Premier League Twenty 20 cricket started and even though I didnt support it much initially, I have to confess that it's the new sensation in International cricket.People might argue that the entire concept was taken up from the existing league in English Football but still, one must have the vision to see its future before implementing and Mr. Lalit Modi has excelled in that department.

The amount of talent that's on display from the top countries of the world is awe inspiring.The close matches that we've had recently and yesterday's phenomenal feat of Shane Warne knocking off Symonds for 4,6,6 off successive balls when his team needed 14 to win from four balls is simply breath taking.These are the kind of matches that draw the spectators to grounds and make sure those watching at home stay glued to the TV sets. The prospect of Shane Warne bowling to Andrew Symonds, McGrath bowling to Warne, Sehwag facing RP Singh was all hypothetical but only till this new phenomenon struck world cricket.

India sure is the driving force of world cricket when it comes to finance but then we've shown that we also have got the talent to match them, through players like R Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, R Bhatia and the likes..
way to go IPL!!!

In a Pleasantly Unpleasant Situation...

The days are whizzing past like anything.The placements, tests and all that seemed so far away a week ago are staring me in the face now. And in spite of all that, all I do is play, watch, eat, drink and sleep.... CRICKET!!!

Yeah, it's another post about cricket and its not about the Indian Premiere League(IPL) or something, it's about the cricket tournament I've been playing in over the last month or so.The Shanthala Cup, as we like to call it, has resumed after we were done with our sessionals and thankfully, we're continuing our march towards the trophy.On a personal front, I've played three games in the last three days, failing in one of them and helping my team along to qualify for the next round in two of them. The pleasantly unpleasant situation I talked about is this.. I am playing for two teams and both had qualified for the semi finals. Over the last two days, both the teams had their respective semi final matches and guess what... both the teams are in the final now!That leaves me with the awkward situation of having to play against my old team, whichever team I choose to play for.

On a personal note, it's great to be in such a situation, having contributed in the wins of both the sides at some point or the other.I'll have to disappoint one of my good friends before the finals but then, that's not a problem as I expect both of them to be considerate enough.After failing for two years to make it to the next round of the tournament, it feels great to be in such a situation. Finally, the patience has paid off and I've found out not one, but two teams which don't depend completely upon me to deliver at all the time.

Its been really hectic and there was a time two weeks ago when I had to play four matches inside 24 hours!It really does take a toll on your body and you cant even think of studying once you get back to the hostel but then, over the last two days, I'm learning to get used to it and I'm trying to balance out all the things(which is quite difficult [:(] )