A nail biting game indeed.......

Dec 20^th 2008 – It was the third and most crucial match of the tournament for us. The venue was Teachers B ground and the opponent was CTS who have a reputation of being a formidable side. I have fond memories of playing at this ground. During my stint at the TNCA league matches all these years, I had had the opportunity to play in this ground many times and I should say it has been a happy hunting ground for us. The success ratio in this ground was pretty high for me and I was just hoping that the trend will continue. Earlier, throughout the week we were constantly discussing about finalizing the playing eleven just to ensure that we are not found wanting in any department. There was no practice session, but mentally we were prepared and very focused to pull this off. The playing eleven was decided and this was probably the best batting combination we had. With almost 8 specialist batsmen in the side and three strike bowlers we had a pretty balanced outfit. The match was scheduled to start at 14:00 and our people started pouring into the ground as early as 13:00. As always is the case, our full team (except Shivaram) was present before match schedule and only two representatives from the opponent had turned up. It was toss at 14:20 and once again it proved to be lucky for me as the coin landed in my favour. With the size of the ground and the strong batting line up of our team in the back of my mind, I had no hesitation in opting to bat.

Abhishek and Bala walked out to start the innings for us. Before I could sit back and start padding up for the number three slot I saw the ball flying to covers and being held by the fielder. It was Bala who had succumbed. I felt little apprehensive about having been made to walk in as early as the first over. However with a good batting practice at the morning earlier that day (with another of the CTS teams) I decided to atleast hold one end. Immediately after a few balls Abhi followed Bala into the pavilion. It was a disastrous start again with both our openers back in the pavilion with score just reaching the double figure. As Rajiv walked in to take guard, I was just hoping that he will repeat his match-saving act one more time. We have been playing together for close to ten years now. All these years we have had innumerable opportunities of sharing the crease together, but I don’t remember a single occasion where we were able to put up a sizeable partnership. Everytime when we looked for something big either me or he will succumb. It was probably a jinx, which I wanted to break it today atleast….

Things went on smooth and we never really looked troubled. We were not scoring in a prolific manner, but we sort of had a control over the innings and we knew that if we survived for close to 15 overs then the gears can be shifted with the likes of Rajesh, Koushik and Praveen still to bat. During the course we managed a few boundaries between us and the one scored by Rajiv leaning onto the front foot and driving the ball through the covers had the stamp of the good form he was in and showed signs of a big innings in store for us. Watching it from the other end I began to feel confident that atlast we both were on the verge of breaking the jinx. But I had thought it too soon as Rajiv attempted a fullish, almost a yorker delivery to sweep and missed. The umpire had no hesitation in raising the finger to signal his exit. That was it………. It was one more of the many occasions where we couldn’t do it together.

Next walked in the personification of my hope – Rajesh….. The person on whom I had put my money on, to display a match winning batting performance. No ground is too big for him and in this ground even a mishit of his will go over the boundary. Although he has a reputation of being a nervous and tentative starter I knew that if he crossed 15 runs, his presence can really make a difference. He was offered a full toss which he gleefully accepted and slashed it to the boundary for four. I was just hoping that this was the beginning of the fireworks from him. Next over one more full toss, this time from the off-spinner and as I watched the ball soar high, I knew very well that the ball was not going anywhere but into the hands of the fielder and it proved to be right. I was so dejected about it that, the moment he hit it I was too busy being disappointed that I didn’t even bother to cross over when the ball was in the air. Along with Rajesh, my hopes of having a good score also went.

At the other end, I was just silently accumulating runs in the manner known to me. A nudge to the fine leg, a square cut, a back-foot punch through the covers (I never knew that I had the ability to score a boundary off the back foot !!!!) all these shots helped me gather some valuable runs. Just when I thought I could carry the innings I fell playing across to a part-time bowler (the wicket keeper infact rolling over his arms). The score was just a meagre 80 odd runs. The next few batsmen in Praveen, Koushik and Shivaram tried their best in boosting the scoring rate and walked back with not much result. Soon after them it was a procession of batsmen walking back and we couldn’t even utilize the full quota of 20 overs as the team was all out for 113. It was a shoddy performance with the bat from us and we knew that it was a daunting task ahead of us in defending such a modest total, against a considerably good opponent and that too in such a small ground. We were definitely shaken a bit, but still decided to give it a shot and try and prolong their innings as much as possible.

It was a typical field set for Rajiv. A 6:3 field with a slip and gully in place and three fielders patrolling the boundary, two on the off and one on the leg. Just as we had hoping for, Rajiv provided the breakthrough for us in the first over by dismissing the opener. He seemed to have no clue as he found his stumps being disturbed. The first two overs from Rajiv were sheer magic. The batsman could hardly read his outswing and I don’t remember any of them even playing a proper convincing defence. They were totally bamboozled by the swing of the ball. At the other end Param as always tightened the grip on the opponent by zipping through his off-spins. It was just the kind of start I was hoping for. After their spell, the good work was carried on by Bala and Koushik who stuck to one side of the wicket and bowled a tight line. Bala meanwhile managed to pull-off a run-out dismissal during his follow through. It was 8 overs and the score read 24 for 2. With 12 overs to go and 90 runs required we knew that we had a match on……..

The 9^th over from Bala proved to be costly as 15 runs were scored. On the other end Koushik managed to get a wicket. With 10 overs to go the opponent required close to 70 runs. 15 more runs were added to their tally in the 11^th over from Rajiv, thanks to poor fielding efforts and the full tosses. The margin was beginning to look achievable. Koushik meanwhile had already exhausted his quota. He had done his job by keeping it tight. Then walked in Param who offered to bowl the 12^th over. His confidence paid dividend immediately as he picked up two wickets. The batsmen found it very difficult to negotiate him. At the 13^th over I had very little option but to expose the fifth weak-link bowling. I decided to try and contain the run flow by bringing on myself. I packed the off-side and bowled outside off-stump in an effort to keep it one side of the wicket. The tactic started to work as we managed to put a lid to the run flow and along with it we choked them to throw their wickets. I managed to steal two wickets in the process.

17 overs 85 for 7. The stage was set perfectly for us to walk away with the match. The opponents required 29 runs from the last three overs and the pressure was on them. All this while there was just one batsman who was holding one end while we kept taking wickets at the other end. I was 100% confident that now the match is grossly on our side. However, there was just one major decision to be taken. Who would be bowling the 18^th over ??? All the strike bowlers had finished their quota and the options in front of me were Bala, Rajesh, Girish and Praveen. I knew that even if 7 runs were to be scored off the 18^th, with me bowling the 19^th we could manage a situation where probably the opponents will require atleast 15 runs in the last over. That was when I turned to Rajesh, praying that this time he would fulfill my hopes with the ball. I knew it was a major gamble considering that he hasn’t bowled for more than a month. However, the thing that weighed on me was his enormous experience in facing so many tight situations in the past and successfully coming through them. I called up my people and asked them their opinion. There were a few votes in favour of my decision and I lobbed the ball to Rajesh……….

As soon as Rajesh marked his run-up Rajiv started waving to me to have a deep fine leg indicating his vulnerability in bowling down the leg. I didn’t bother to pay heeds to his words as Rajesh had already started his run-up to bowl. As I watched with bated breath from the covers I saw the ball landing way beyond the leg stump and making its way towards the boundary. 5 runs of zero balls……. I cursed myself for not listening to Rajiv. I immediately changed the field. Next ball was a repeat but thankfully the keeper was in way to prevent the boundary. 6 runs of zero balls…… I immediately walked to Rajesh to try and calm him down. He quipped “Can anyone else bowl instead of me. Will they allow ??” On hearing that I knew it was the beginning of curtains for us. The fact that he started panicking and was not confident of himself to merely complete an over was an evidence enough to make me realize how the script will go from now on. He tried bowling seam up and again wide-boundary !!!!! 11 runs of zero balls……… One more attempt and again a wide. 12 runs of zero balls……. Then he again tried bowling off-spin. This time it was not a wide, but the ball found the meat of the bat and landed in the mid-wicket boundary. 16 runs of one ball…… I shifted myself to deep mid-wicket. He managed to squeeze in the next five balls for just 2 runs. 18 runs of one over and whole fate of the match was over-turned…… It proved to be a nightmare for Rajesh, very unlikely of him. With 2 overs to go and 11 runs to defend we were looking down the barrel and hoping for a miracle. Bowling the 19^th over, I still had a slimmer of hope that probably if I restricted this over to just 3 runs we have a chance. A skier and half-chance of a catch at long on going down…… that almost sealed the defeat for us. Rest was a mere formality as by the end of my over the opponents required just 4 runs. They scored them with 3 balls to spare…………

Nevertheless, it was a great game, a pulsating one, where we held the nerve almost throughout the game except for the last but crucial moments. Yet nothing to lose heart. It was a excellent fight back considering the modest total. We still have 5 games. Let’s rectify ourselves and try ending up on the top of the table………….

regards
Sri Kumar J