Here comes Cricketing moments three. The final version of ‘My favorite cricketing moments’.

I don’t know if you know Mary, but just like you always leave the best for the last, so do I. And that’s the reason why I left fielding part of my cricketing abilities for the end.

Let go back to when I started playing cricket.

I was around 7-8 when I started having interest in cricket. I never had too many friends back then, so I used to play by myself. And the best game was to throw the ball into the wall and catch it.

I remember the first spectacular catch I took clearly even today. And I remember how happy I felt back then. Throwing the ball into the wall and catching it was easy, so then came the next step. I stuck a 10inch by 10inch white paper on the wall, and tried to hit the paper and catch it on the way back. Hitting the paper was easy, and catching it was even easier. Then suddenly I though, lets see if I can hit and catch 3 balls on the trot. (my thought are in italics)
1st ball: Hit the target and a simple stomach height return catch. (If I keep throwing like this, I’ll easily take 10 catches. Harman make the catches a bit difficult)
2nd ball (threw the ball a little harder): Hit the target and a catch above my head but well within the reach (ok now this is better, but I can still take a tougher catch)
3rd ball (by this time I was a bit nervous): Again hit the target and omg, I hit it too hard. (Damn, its gonna go way over my head. Run Back…Oh no I’m gonna still miss it…but I cant, I have to take the Hat-trick…Jump…and I jumped backward. While in Mid air – man I’m gonna miss it…spat- the ball hits my hand, and I’m still in air…hey wow I caught it, I did it…wow…bang…ouch..) My head hit the edge of the metal gutter and the concrete floor really really hard. But surprisingly, it hurt just for a few mins as I was so excited to take the catch .

Now catching off the flat wall was a piece of cake. I got bored of it pretty soon. Taking spectacular catches was now common for me. Next step was try to catch the ball not knowing which way it would go. For that, I had just the perfect innovative idea.

Our backyard wasn’t the biggest of the backyards but it had enough space for me to play cricket. The floor was made of bricks, which was unique to our house only. And one of the walls had those designs where they just spat small stones on the wall. So naturally the surface was really rough and a plastic ball after hitting it would go in any directions. That’s where I started really doing well. Now taking 3 consecutive catches was really difficult. They would require me to dive almost every ball. So the rules of my game changed. I was supposed to get the ‘Opponent Team’ out 10 times (one for each player). I had rules for all that I missed. Hitting the other wall was 4/6, and the number of bounces the ball took before I reached it was the runs ‘run’ by the opponent. So that’s where I actually learned how to dive in the air for catches.

Then came the big step. I had made some friends with the rest of the kids in my ‘Gali’ (street), so we used to play Gali Cricket. And since I was the youngest and the newest member, I was always doing the fielding, and sometimes got to bat a bit. I hadn’t started bowling Leg spin back then so, I never got to bowl as I chucked while bowling fast.

So it was I think my first or second day at gali cricket, when the best batsman hit the ball high in the air. And it was coming straight at me. Now we used to play with a rubber ball which would bounce off the hand even more than a tennis ball. And the height that this ball took, was so much that catching that was not even expected of the big guys. But somehow, I managed to catch it and not let it fall. That surprised a lot of the senior and soon I was playing regularly with them.

Then came the next step. The Indians under Azar went on the tour to South Africa. I think it was in 1995. And the series was not covered on the local channel. So since we didn’t have cable TV back then, I never got to watch that series. I used to hear my friends talk about the matches a lot. One day I heard them talking of a guy named Jonty Rhodes. Apparently he was the best fielder in the world. The elder guys were laughing and saying, “He doesn’t let the ball go beyond him even if its 3 mts wide of him. And look at us, we cant stop the ball even as the ball goes under our legs”. That’s when I thought “I can stop it too. I don’t let the ball go through my legs” But I never said those words, I was a shy guy back then. But that did led me to the next step. Ground fielding.

Now our our house had a narrow 1.5 mtr wide gully which ran from the front of our house to the end. And this gully was totally cemented and thus pretty slippery. I used to roll the ball from 1 end, and try to run and stop it before it got off the cemented area at the other end. That’s where I learned to slide along the ground to stop the ball. Later on I was joined by my new neighbor Romsy, who was 4-5 years younger than me. We would roll the ball for each other, and see who stopped the most. By that time I had turned around 12, and now I was cricket crazy just around the time the world cup came to India. I also made some friends of my age and now we started playing at our backyard. I hadn’t met Sandy yet, but when I met him, I made the next big transition. We shifted from playing in my backyard to playing in the ground, and that’s where my fielding really improved.

Now I don’t remember all the god catches that I took, but there are some pieces of fielding that I don’t forget.

9) Well there is one piece of fielding I remember. And this wasn’t actually a catch but a run out which I did several times. We used to have a total of 4 stumps. So 3 would make up the wickets at one end and the single stump would be the bowling end. So this happened a day when we decided to play a small game before the rest of the guys came. We were four, so team of 2 were made. I was bowling and my teammate was at square leg. We almost always kept the runs on the leg side only. The batsman hit the ball to the mid on position. Now the ball wasn’t too far away from me, but the batsman still decided to run a single cause chances of hitting the single stump were rare. But I hit ad he was out. Two days later, the same batsman was batting, and I was field at mid on. Again he was out to my direct hit. Some days later, I was bowling again, and again he was batting and again the mid on was empty and again he hit it there, and again he decided to run and again I got a direct hit and ran him out. It was the ‘Again’ thing that makes this run out special but the comment that the batsman passed “How can he hit the single stump everytime”
Next I would like to share one of my first diving catches in the big ground. My good friend ‘Lali’ was batting and I was at deepish short leg. He fended a delivery (which I always found amusing- people fending off a tennis ball), and the ball popped up in the air. It was clearly going to fall on the ground as I was pretty far off. I had decided before the ball was delivered, that any ball slightly in the air, I’ll go for it. So I dived forward, but didn’t have to stretch full length. Infact after taking the catch just 6 inches from the cround, my momentum made me land on top of my hands and my arm got twisted pretty badly. Infact it still starts to hurt sometimes even as of today.
7) Ok, this was one incident when I was bowling medium pace with the tennis ball again. The batsman tried to pull a short ball from me, but swung the bat way to early. The spongy ball hit the bottom of the bat and came straight back toward the bowling wickets. I was in my follow through and falling to my left. The bowl was toward my right foot which was still in the air. I half heartedly put my right hand towards my right foot aiming for the ball, and my body in order to maintain the balance made my right leg to lift. What resulted was the ball getting stuck between my boot and my hand and the batsman fuming angrily at my consistence at taking good catches.
6) Then there is this freak catch I want to tell you about. Oh man I still laugh out aloud when I remember that catch. Me and my friend Jatin were fielding very close to each other in a congested area. We were more of chatting than fielding. Suddenly the ball came in our direction and we ran toward it like kids run for candies. Anyways, he was in front of me, so I left the ball for him, although I was just a 1 arms distance behind him. Now the ball went through his hands, hit my right boot and bounced back to get stuck in Jatin’s right armpit. It was such a freak catch that we didn’t realize it for a minute. And when we did realize, we both were lying down on the floor and laughing….pity the catch wasn’t counted.
5) Then one day we decided to play with the leather ball. I was standing on the boundary and the ball was hit straight at me but a little towards my left. The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn’t exactly see where the ball was. I went to the edge of the boundary, and at the last moment saw the ball just over my left shoulder. I didn’t jump, but stuck my left hand out. Smack! The ball for the first time made that noise which sounded so god because I stopped a six and didn’t drop the catch either.
4) This catch was very similar to the one which gave me confidence in my fielding abilities (the skier with rubber ball when I used to play gully cricket). I was in Amritsar playing cricket with my cousin Sweety’s friends. Now they all were very old and were bowling chuck fast. I was in Sweety’s team, but was fielding because of the lack of fielders. We were also playing with a really heavy plastic ball which did hurt when we got hit. Sweety hit a huge shot but straight in the air. This shot must have gone atleast over 50 mtrs high. And the plastic ball was wobbling with me underneath it. The fielders around me gathered to take the catch but than gave up the idea with the fear of getting hurt. It must have taken atleate 15 sec for the ball to come down, and when it did, I heard for the first time a plastic ball making a splat noise on my hand. But I managed to hold on to the catch although my whole right hand was red by the impact. People around me were surprised and surprisingly Sweety was smiling (the reasons I still don’t know). The praises I got that day made me concentrate harder on my fielding.
3) Hmm. This catch is special not because I loved taking it but because it was so very difficult. Gurbir, the best batsman in our group was batting and I was fielding at mid wicket. Behind me was 6 feet tall wild grass. Gurbir tried to pull a short ball but the ball lobbed up in the air and was about to fall behind me in the tall grass. I turned around, and with my back towards the wicket and the ball still behind me, started running into the grass. I still remember, I was more running to see where the ball would land rather than trying to catch it (cause it was difficult to find the ball in that grass). Now all this time I was looking at the ball behind me and running into the grass, which was so difficult because my neck was in an awkward position. And when the ball came down I realized that I had actually come pretty close to the ball. I held out my hands in front of me and the catch was completed.
2) The top two catches were taken on the same day and in the same innings. This was the day we decided to change everything. Firstly, we kept the runs on the off side for a change, and Sandy was in the opponent team with Gurbir. Well with Gurbir and Sandy on the same team, our loosing was a pre-gone conclusion. But I still gave it a try. I had just taken the best catch of my life to dismiss Gurbir, and now Sandy was batting. I was standing at his favorite spot, long off. As expected, Sandy hit the ball towards long off and the ball was sailing over my head, just to my right. I kept my eyes on the ball, and soon realized that the ball had gone more high than long, but would still go over for a 6. I started running right and turned around to face the boundary, and was on the edge of it. As the ball came down I leaned outwards and took the catch beyond the boundary, but my feet inside the ground. And that was the first time I saw Sandy frustrated at me taking a good catch ..ha ha
1) Ok here comes the big one. The top catch which even Jonty would feel proud of. I was again fielding at straightish long off and Gurbir hit the ball to me left, widish long off. The ball was going to bounce just 2 mtrs before the rope and Gurbir had even stopped running. Even I knew that the shot was a sure 4 but I still started running towards the ball. The place where the ball was to land was the rare batch of the ground with lush green grass on it. Suddenly, I found myself jumping full length in the air. I remember that even I was surprised that I jumped for the catch. And while I was fully horizontal toward my left side, the ball came and landed right in between both my hands, with the back side of my hands touching the ground. When I started diving, I was about 3 meters away from the place where the ball was about to land. And when the catch was completed, I got so excited, that I ran up to Gurbir and jumped into his lap. Everyone in the ground including me were shocked at that catch. And I was running around like crazy.

Well that concludes my Cricketing moments 3. After the wonderful 3 years I played in that ground I never got a chance to play proper cricket in ground again. But still fielding happens to be the area I still am good in. no matter how fat I get, I always manage to take diving catches. Soon I’ll be in Australia and then we will take diving Gilly catches on the beach Mary. What do you say?

Well, I haven’t written a post for such a long time here on our blog!  Reasons (or excuses.. hehe!) are as follows -

• I don’t spend as much time on the internet these days.
• When I do think about writing something on this blog, I feel as though I should write my cricketing moments or about my ‘dear’ ones just like Harman has done so well  the only thing is I can’t sit down and write about a pre-determined subject!  I need to write when it comes to me!  so I decided that thinking that way was silly of me, and one day when I do want to write about those 2 things, I will – because I loved the idea of writing about both of them :)

Well I know you said how I need to start pushing you to do some things.. so I thought.. why not have a sports post on our blog?    What we’ll do is this -

• When we’ve done a sports session, we add it to the comments, noting how long for and what we did.
• And then we’ll see who has improved from week to week (cause it is unfair to compete against each other, as I have way more free time that you to do sport in)

What are you waiting for?  Ready, Set, Go!

Hmm Cricketing moments 1 was about batting so now comes the turn of bowling.

Though, I found bowling as exciting as batting, but somehow I wasn’t as good in bowling as I was in batting. The reason was that we played with tennis ball most of the times. And to make a tennis ball spin and rip is practically impossible. But whenever I did bowl leg spin, I used to be successful. But that I did rarely or when we were playing with Leather ball. Infact with the leather ball I would rate myself as a better bowler than a batsman.

Ok, so I am actually a Leg Spin bowler, who likes to give the ball a lot of flight. And like most spinner, the more defensive the batsman is, the more flight I give and the more spin I get. There is a story to my becoming a spinner too. As a kid, I always used to be fascinated by spin. Then one day, when I was around 8, I heard on the TV that Leg spin was the most difficult art to learn. That’s the day I decided I would master the art of leg spin. Those days I used to play in my backyard, which was around 12-14 mtrs in length. So that made my pitch around 12 mtrs in length as opposed to the standard 20.5 mtrs. But since I was really small then (not this tall either), and I used to play with cork ball on concrete floor, I used to get a lot of turn. So much so, that I used to surprise myself at times. But those days I had no friends to play with. I had just shifted into the new house after coming back from Germany. So all I did was, mark 3 stumps on the wall with chalk (I didn’t have stumps back then), and just bowl leg spin at the wall.

Then came the time I made friends. A guy called Deepak, shifted next doors. And then Lali, the guy who lived across the street and me became friends. Soon Romsy shifted 2 houses from my house. So soon there was the gang of four of us. Me, Deepak, Romsy and Lali. We used to have our own rules. Since our backyard was surrounded by 3 other houses, separated by 2 mtr high walls, we had a rule that the ball cannot be hit in the air above the height of the walls. If somebody does that, he would be out. Even though the space was limited, we generally had two fielders and also kept singles. But most of the runs came in boundaries. Now Lali here was the unluckiest guy. He was a left arm orthodox spinner, and used to pitch the ball just outside the off stump. But unluckily for him a metallic Gutter lid was located at that perfect spot for him. And since the ball would behave unexpectedly on bouncing on the lid, we had kept a ball landing on that as a no ball. So poor Lali.

Then when I grew older, we started playing in the ground, where, bowling fast medium was the only option left for me, because we played with a tennis ball 90% of the time. Still sometimes I did bowl leg spin, and that’s where my memorable spells and magic balls came from. Here we go:

Best spells:

As much as I can recall, I bowled some three really good spells. Unfortunately, any good spells in ‘Our’ ground, I don’t remember. And the coincidence part is that all my favorite spells were on my first match in a new ground. So here I go:

3) Bowling in the small ground: Ok so what happened was that one day, ‘OUR’ ground was all filled up. Also a lot of our team members didn’t come. And for a change me, and Sandy were on the same team. So I decided to go and play with my friend’s friends. There was nothing special about my spell except for the fact that I was bowling leg spin with tennis ball. And since we had various methods of taking wickets, I managed to get around 5 wickets in 1 over. But apart from the stats, there was nothing special about my bowling.

 2) Bowling in Arena: ‘Arena’ was our annual sports competition that was held in our college. But since I had been out of touch with cricket for some 4 years I didn’t participate for 2 years. Then finally once I decided to play. It was our first match in Area, and we were playing in a proper ground for a change. I generally was the wicket keeper, cause I was the only guy to be able to do some decent wicketkeeping. By the way I hate wicket keeping, cause I doesn’t let me do fielding. Anyways, I decided to come on for a couple of overs and bowl my leg spin. And that day I bowled really well. The flight was perfect. The bowl was landing at the right play. And it was spinning a lot. I think I gave away some 9 runs in the two overs that I bowled, and got a couple of wickets. But had there been a regular wicketkeeper, I would have got atleast 4 wickets. Because I got a lot of edges and a lot of stumping chances. So much so that even the keeper was getting beaten. The bad thing was that I couldn’t bowl more than 2 overs. It was a 20 over match, and by the time I finished my 2 overs, the 20 overs had finished. But I thoroughly enjoyed bowling those two overs.

1) Bowling in Delhi match: Ok Now we come my favorite bowling spell. And the most ironic part is that in this spell I didn’t bowl leg spin. I was bowling fast off breaks. And what match was it? Well the one in which I scored some runs too. Yup my no 1, batting knock in that Delhi ground. Now after we had batted and I had batted in typical Punjabi Jatt fashion, I had calmed down a little, and was doing the wicket keeping as usual. Things were going good for us. We had a good total on the board, and Deepak was bowling really well. Since the runs were kept only on the offside, so he was bowling Fast in cutters and just short of length, which was virtually impossible to hit. But soon his spell was over and we didn’t have similar bowlers. So the batsmen who were chocked till then, started scoring runs again. And I was again getting infuriated. Then after a couple of overs, the ball was in Deepak’s hands. He was our captain, and was thinking who to give the ball to. I went up to him, and just pointed towards the ball. And the reaction from him really surprised me. He knew I was a leg spinner, and that I would definitely take wickets, but will give runs too. But that day he didn’t question me, and with a lot of respect gave me the ball after asking a small question “will you bowl?”

Now the reason for that confidence in me by Deepak, I realized when I turned around to look at the opposite team members. Suddenly their smiles had vanished, and they started murmuring amongst themselves. They got really serious and gave me a lot of respect. The reasons were, my knock and the anger on my face. I was the wicketkeeper when Deepak was bowling, so I knew exactly what to bowl. I too bowled fast in cutter and just short of the length. I didn’t take too many wickets, but I didn’t give many runs either. I love that bowling effort, because we won because of my performances that day. I was Gutsy that day.

Best Bowls:

So now it’s the turn of my favorite balls. The problem here is that I like so many balls that I balled. I especially loved the balls that beat the batsmen a lot. But still I have 3 balls that are my favorite, and here they are:

3) Beating the Batsman: Well at # 3I wont put a single delivery that I balled. It’s a single type of delivery that I used to ball again and again. I used this trick to a new batsman, who hadn’t played me earlier. The first ball would generally get me a wicket. The ball would pitch outside leg stump, so the batsman would back away exposing his stumps. But the flight would take the ball further down the leg so much so that the batsman would give up and not offer a shot. The ball would then spin and surprise the batsman, who would either edge it to the slips or miss it completely to be bold. Naughty me han….

Well I used to do this trick even in college times. But since in college we used to play with Tennis balls most of the times, I would manage to beat the batsmen, but the ball would go over the stumps (and sometimes even beat the wicket keeper)

2) Caught at gully: Ok Number 2. Well this is another delivery I would bowl a lot. But this particular delivery is one of my favorites because it really amused my friend Lucky (who was playing with us at our SCG for the first time). Once the batsmen were aware to the fact that my bowls spin a lot, I used to start bowling on middle/leg. And those days the turn that I got used to take the bowl would easily miss the stumps. So Lucky was playing his first match, and I always had a slip and a gully when we kept runs on the off side (which was rare). So that day, Lucky was guided by me to go to the gully region. The next bowl I bowled, was fullish on around middle. It took the edge of the bat and went straight to Lucky. For me it was a common sight those days, but when Lucky came up to me and said this: “Wow, Amazing. You placed the Fielder at exactly the perfect spot. I didn’t have to move an inch. That was great strategy and your plan worked perfectly” This words really brought a smile to me face, and made that bowl special………

1) ‘My’ bowl of the past millennium: This one had to be on our SCG. And it had to be with a leather bowl. Infact that day I had bowled pretty well and our team got most of the opponent team out in quick time. But there was this one new little kid who was stubborn. My ball wasn’t spinning that much and he was good at defense. Even the good balls bowled at middle/off were dealt with with excellent technique. I don’t remember his name, but I think it was Lalit. Anyways, I was getting really frustrated, because we were to bat only after he got out. Finally he got out to a bowl that amazed me as much as him.i gave the leather ball a lot of flight (More than usual), and the bowl went a little fuller than I expected. But because of the flight, the revolutions were far more, and it spin and he was bowled. Now it was either Around the legs or through his legs, the fact is not clear cause he was trying to play the ball. I infact didn’t even come to know that he was bowled. It was the puzzled look on his face that surprised me (cause he had been beaten earlier but kept a Dravid like calm face). And then the Keeper’s celebrations told me that I had got him………

There is one more thing I would like to add. In college I played on and off. But whenever I did, I preferred bowling leg spin. Now there were just two batsmen I really feared. One was my dear Himanshu, who is the batsman with the best technique that I have ever seen. The other was Mayank, who again was a really consistent and all around player. Now I used to be really nervous while bowling to Mayank and Himanshu. I wouldn’t give much flight while bowling to them, cause they were quick on their feet. Himanshu has a very good balance and a biiiig stride forward. Whereas Mayank used to come down the pitch often. But I never noticed one thing. Mayank used to be defensive while I was bowling. I never realized that until one day after a game (in which I bowled medium to Mayank), he came up to me and asked why I didn’t bowl leg spin to him. I said, I’m afraid of u hitting me. And his reply surprised me. He said “Man I was hoping you don’t come to bowl leg spin. I find playing your spin really difficult”. That has been the best compliment of my bowling abilities…..

Hi Mary dear. I actually forgot of a semi knock which I know you would love to know about. I played this in
Delhi. We were playing in a biggish ground, and this was played after our college ended and before our final exams. Around May 2005. I had just got the plaster off my leg, so I could just stand. But I refused for a runner and would walk across the pitch. I could run a little bit, but not put pressure on my left foot. I was like batting on 1 and half feet. So we were playing against the home team on an alien ground. My friend Karthik had the strike. He took a single of the first ball. The bowler wasn’t that good, and was just slow medium. But the ground was bigish. Somehow I managed to hit the next 5 balls from him for sixes. And I remember that the last one was the Biggest. Everyone around me was shouting Dhoni Dhoni, cause I had long hair then, and I happened to be the team wicketkeeper. I was so glad that day, cause I had a point to prove to many. Above all I had a point to Prove to myself. I was having a tough time with the doctors of the Company I was supposed to join after college (Tata Consultancy Service). Those doctors were adamant on proving that I was a Physically handicapped. And that day I atleast proved to myself that I was as fit, if not more, then as much as my friends………..

My top cricketing moments

Cricket. Oh I used to be crazy about it during school time. We were a group of 5 guys who used to play. Me, Sandy, Lali, Romsy and Gurbir. Lali was the guy of exactly my age who used to live right across the street. Romsy lived a couple of houses away and he was 4 years younger than me. Gurbir was Lali’s classmate, and was the best player of us all. He was so consistent in his medium pace that even taking a single off him was difficult. And he also was the best batman. Easily the best. Way better than me and Sandy. Actually not just sports, but he was a topper in the studies as well. Pretty much a role model for me. He actually happens to be in the same company as I’m in.

So anyways, getting back to cricket. We were 5 but splitting up the teams was never difficult. Me, sandy and Romsy used to be in 1 team, and Gurbir and Lali in the other. And believe it or not, they used to win most of the times. I mean Gurbir alone was enough for us. We used to play tournament among ourselves, and most of the times we used to loose. Then we also used to play against other teams, where we all performed good (because we never had to face Gurbir). But then later on a lot of other kids joined and we used to have some 10-15 people playing.

A little word on our cricket ground (Ludhiana). It actually wasn’t a cricket ground. It was just a playground and a pretty small one too. But it was just the right size for kids of our age. And since we used to play with tennis balls, we used to have high scoring matches.

Ok, Favorite moments. Oh I have so many. I’ll divide then into the three groups…but cover just one today

Batting:

Ok, as I said, I was a master of flicks and pulls on that ground. And during the later stages, I even got good at the on drive. Actually the problem with my batting was that I could never come on the front foot, because of my left foot being weak. But fortunately, we always used to have runs on the leg side only. So I actually never realized that I am unable to play of the front foot until we started playing on the off side too. So anyways, while playing with the tennis ball, speed or spin was never a problem for me. No Speed or Spin was too much for me. However I did manage to beat a few with my fast Yorkers when I decided to ball fast a couple of times. So I had played a lot of shots and innings that I loved, but some shots and innings always stay in your memory.

Ok so I still remember three shots that I played in my life.

(#3) Ok this one shot was played off a leg spinner. 'Aman', a guy who lived close to the park was the bowler. He used to be a fan of mine and used to copy me a lot. So he was bowling leg spin to me and that day it was actually spinning. He bowled a good length and a really flighted delivery. I went on the front foot and played it against the turn through the square leg for a boundry. We were playing with a leather ball that day and that was a sweetly timed shot.

(#2) And one happened to be off Gurbir using a tennis ball. He used to be immaculate in line and length. This one shot that I hit him for a big six was of a perfect good length ball. I just went on to the front foot, and almost on one knee, I half flicked, half pulled the ball over the mid wicket. It was an amazing shot and till today I don’t understand how I hit that ball.

(#1) Ok my favorite one. This one I hit was off a fast bowler. Mr Sameer, a really good friend, and probably the only person who fielded better than me, was a really fast bowler. He easily would touch over 80 miles an hr (just an estimate). So this one day we decided to do everything the other way around. We decided to play with red leather ball and have runs on the off instead. We started a test match and I was out for a duck(caught behind) off Sameer in the first innings of the match. Now that made me really angry, so I got Sameer out off a real fast bowl myself. And Gurbir, I got out off my leg spin. So the second innings started. And I was so determined to play well. Sameer bow0led a real fast bowl just a little full and on the off, and I got on my front foot, and with the full swing of the bat hit the ball in the air. Now before that day I had never hit a leather ball so hard. Because we had houses all around the park. But that shot was so sweetly timed, that it made a real nice sound and I hardly felt it on the bat. And even Sameer was really impressed. I think that match had to be abandoned due to bad light.

Now comes my all time favorite knocks.

Actually there are some five knocks that I really like. But two of them I don’t remember much. I just remember the statistics.

(#5) Ok this one was where just 4 of us were playing. Me Sandy, Romsy and the fourth guy I don’t remember. I think we had reached the ground a little earlier so decided to play a small 5 over match. Now me and Romsy were batting first, so I gave him the bat to play the first 15 balls, cause I had to field with the opposite team. Anyways, he didn’t get out in those 15 balls. So I was left with 15 balls. That day Sandy wasn’t taking cricket seriously, and his partner wasn’t that good too. So I ended up hitting 49 off 15 balls. I was so annoyed that the overs finished before I could finish my half century. But I don’t remember the shots much.

(#4) Ok now this knock was played a few days after the above mentioned knock. Again we were playing casually and again Sandy was against me. That day I hit a half Century in just 11 balls. I was relieved more than happy to get to 50 this time around. And I remember that I hit such long sixes that day, that they would have been sixes on any ground. And after every ball it took them 5 mins to fetch the ball.

(#3) Hmm, this knock was played in Amritsar. I had gone to my village for the holidays and I think it was my first day. So there were wide open grounds there. We were just walking around and we were some 5 people. A bunch of guys were playing cricket so we asked if we could join. Now all I remember that day is that we were some 5 players per team. And my whole team, except my youngest cousin got out for 0. And I and my cousin Jaggi were left. I scored some 65 runs that day, and the total team score was 66. That 1 run was Jaggi’s

(#2) Ok this knock I can never forget. The same ground in Ludhiana and this was a big match. I mean there were some 20 guys playing that day and it was some 10 overs match. I think that day all 5 of us were on the same team. We were chasing some 88 to win, but the other team cheated and raised their runs to 90. Since I was the captain, I didn’t protest much (cause I hate cheating, but hate if people cheat but more than that I hate arguing) So we had to score some 91 runs. Anyways I opened, and after scoring some 10 runs, I had to dive to get home for a run. In the process I peeled the skin off my arm and had to retire hurt. So I went to a nearby home to wash my hand off and apply some medicine. By the time I got back, Gurbir, Sandy and Lali had gone and the score was some 17-18. Some 6 members of the team had got out, and so I went back to bat. But by the time we reached 26, all my other friends got out and I was left alone at the crease. Luckily we had kept the rule of last man batting. So I kept on batting. They kept bowling full and I kept flicking them over square leg. Then they started bowling short, and it was even easier, I used the pull. And in no time we reached 88 with 1 over to go. Actually we had already got to 90, but they cheated and declared a six as a 4. So the Last over, just 3 runs to win. I decided to tick off the singles. And in the process to take a single I got run out……I was sooooo disappointed that day. But then I realized that we had actually won the match had they not cheated. But still because we officially lost the match, I rank this knock as 2nd and not first.

(#1) Ok this knock was played in Delhi. This was in the second year in college, and I hardly used to play then. I had just actually started playing again. So we went to my friend’s place, and we had kept runs only on the off side. We were playing against an alien team on an alien ground. And we had bet money on the match too. So we were the visitors, and the ground wasn’t really a ground too. It was an open space with the floor made of bricks. We kept runs on the off side and played with tennis ball. Now as soon as the match started, I knew I had no role to play in the match. I was nothing on the off side, and totally out of touch. Then something happened that really infuriated me. Our best player Himanshu, who happens to be one of my best friends, was out for a duck. Soon another went and then another. Now what was infuriating me was the bowlers. All of them were chucking and bowling really fast flat off spinners. And the way they were celebrating made me even more angry. Ok so as soon as the third wicket fell, I grabbed the bat and went up to my captain and announced I was going, he saw the anger in my eyes, and just stepped back. Now I don’t know what made me play that day, because I had no idea how to play on the off side. All I did that day was plant my foot forward and hit through the line. I don’t know how many I scored, but I scored some 80% of the runs. And the reason I am unaware of the score is that I was really angry that day. And I actually happened to scare the bowlers to some extent too with my aggression and just the look on my face. When I finally did get out, they were not celebrating, and I was smiling and saying to them in my head, “See this is probably the first time you’ve come across a Punjabi Jatt”

Well that’s it for todays post. But Bowling is coming soon after you write some of your favorite batting incidents…

Take care..