We had a cricket tournament of sorts at work on Saturday. The folks at our Mumbai office came over for a elimination style tournament. It was meant to be a team building exercise. This is sort of what we'd practicing for and the big day was here.
I knew it was going to be a different day when we were playing a practice match before the Mumbai folks got here, and when they were picking teams, I was picked 5th out of 11! Not last! This despite the fact that the last three times before that game when I picked up a bat I got out for a ZERO on the very first ball. Three straight first-ball ducks!
During the tournament I was put on Team B which meant "not good enough to be on Team A but atleast you know which way to hold a bat". Chasing 88 to win in ten overs, I opened our innings. My only thought was "Oh please don't let me be out for a zero again!" The immediate goal was to bat one ball without getting out. I played watchfully and even managed a run on the first ball.
It only got better from there. My partner and I talked to each other constantly, kept revising our scoring - slow accumulation at first and then faster scoring as we got more comfortable. We ran extremely well between the wickets. (Running between the wickets is my favorite part of playing cricket; I love converting single into doubles, and doubles into triples more than scoring boundaries.) I was winded but I was enjoying mysel too much to care. Just kept pushing myself. I even scored a boundary and in a very un-cool fashion jumped up and down in celebration! I couldn't believe the ball actually reached the boundary, and it wasn't just a glance either, it was a full-fledged pull.
The other team was very nasty in their appeals etc. There was a point where they thought they got me caught behind (the ball didn't hit my bat) but the leg umpire over-ruled the umpire and gave me not out. They were furious and started the smack talk. Sadly, it bothered me enough to where I started playing rash strokes and finally swung wildly to get caught behind. I had managed 14, and the top scorer was my opening partner with 16. Inspite of our efforts we fell short and ended up losing.
The only other time I can remember playing that well was once in Austin, in the grounds behind Jester. That day I was absolutely on fire. Nothing the other team did could get me out and I kept scoring even as wickets fell from the other side. I went hoarse from screaming for the other guy to run and it was just bliss. Yesterday, came very close to that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment