Saturday, February 9, 2008

Out of touch, out of shape...

Well, first let me apologize to my audience for being so lax with regard to keeping my unnecessary blog updated--but i had to, thanks to body ache. Yes, body ache, muscle pain, whatever u may call it... the kinda pain caused due to playing cricket after 1 million years.

That brings me to the subject of my topic. Yes, i recently discovered that i am horribily out of touch and out of shape. I thought indians of any age, shape and size could just wake up, take a bat/ball (in my case, ball) and go out and play cricket with ease and finesse. But sorry folks, thats not the case--sorry for bursting your bubble (you would thank me here, as i am saving you from a hell lotta pain).

Well, it was the nice chilly saturday morning of Feb 2nd 2008. I was the 2nd person to arrive on the field for the inter-team cricket event. Due to a stroke of good/bad luck my team (the "Mavericks") had been directly promoted to the Quarterfinals (as we had 11 teams participating, we could not have group matches, so we had to draw lots).

Imagine, no practice since college, and on to the QFs already. We were headed for doom. But, still our Captain (Percy) kept the team spirits high and we scored 74 from our alloted 6 overs--which was amazing. That is, until i was handed the ball to bowl the first over (surprise! surprise!).

The damn tennis ball seemed to weigh like SS Titanic filled with elephants (african--cos their bigger ears contribute significantly to their weight--so i assume). 24 hours back i was trying to figure out why my MS Word spell check was not working---and here i am bowling my first over after like 15 gazillion years.

Well, the first ball was bang on target... it amazed me more than the batsman (who was touted to be the most dangerous batsment in their team). Then what followed was this Wd (wide), 4, 6, 4... Then i took his wicket. Joy to the world the Lord has come! I didn't know how to celebrate... should i pull a Harbhajan or a Sreesanth or even a Symonds?! I just walked back to my bowling run up.

Then after the wicket.... 4, Wd, Wd, 0. Totally my over had leaked 21 Runs! Now they needed jus 54 off 5 overs!!

I was wrong with the ball being the heaviest thing i've experienced... i realized that the heaviest thing i've ever had to deal with were my feet. Man! Life sucked... i thought... rather prayed ... "Dear Mother Earth, I know i haven't kept in touch... but please ask Mr. Ground to open up and have his breakfast!"

Dropped an easy catch... still no response from Mr. Ground.

Finally we won the match, thanks to some really tight bowling by my teammates.

Phew... i had nearly thrown the match away!

The next match (Semifinals) were with an extremely competitive lot from our office's 4th floor... dunno what they had named their team... but i guess "Australia" would've fitted the bill.

In my view, they looked like a bunch of henpecked 30-40 year olds... who were really good players, but low in sporting spirit and stamina. They wanted to win. Period.

This match, i only fielded--was not asked to bowl, neither did i ask for the ball. They scored 63 off 7 overs. Competitive.

Our batting lineup collapsed to their superior bowling skills (these guys had been practising for 3 weeks). I scored 5 or 4. Who remembers. Who cares!?

We lost, and they won. Period.

So that summed up my dismal performance and a dismal saturday. But, I had fun. We all did. Mainly coz the extremely competitive guys lost to the team that sits next to my team. Sportmanship prevailed! So, did better stamina.

So, my dear friends... cricket is a fun game. Enjoy it, just look beyond all those endorsement deals and scandals and don't give 21 runs in an over--you would be fine. :)

Now I have to confess.....

The pains were there jus for 1 day--thought it would be a plausible reason to get me out of jail for not keeping my blog updated. :D

I am facing a huge writer's block. Something, which I predicted i would face when I started out this blog.

Hope I am more motivated in the future to keep this thing alive.. Kinda liking this blog thingy. :)

So, till next birth... er ... i mean, next time. B'bye!

Oh, Btw, I saw Taare Zameen Par. Excellent movie... and yes, I cried too. :')