WEEKEND has the TORNADOS toppled

How probable do you feel it is for a team to emerge back victorious in a cricket match having given away control in the entire first innings and one-third into the second innings? How often have you witnessed a depleted bowling side running through an opponent team with a meager total to defend? How often have you sat open-mouthed since someone took a catch that resembled Adam Bacher dismissing Sachin Tendulkar at the Cape Town test in 1997? And how often has such a catch triggered a series of good catches to run down a team?

Anyone who can’t remember having seen all these happening in a single match have missed a match of their lifetime although this is club cricket. But this was club cricket at its best. It was a cricket match to be relished and remembered for more than a lifetime and generations to come. I’ll talk about this even to my great-grandchildren with everlasting freshness and I’m sure every team member would. It was a classic example of a match that contained unlimited team spirit, co-ordination, vigor, enthusiasm and a verve from one team that was destined to win. Even if God Fate had thought otherwise, WCC would have crafted its own script to rewrite it. Read on….

With all plans set on the previous evening for the big game, a must win game, I was most likely to sit out due to a thumb injury I picked up during practice. Vinod too had followed suit and that meant we had to pull in Sriraj to be a part of playing XI. And he generously agreed – a million thanks to him and more than that. More problems arose when Ragha had to rule himself out from the match due to unavoidable circumstances. The impact of his absence was not negligible – he was one of the 5 bowlers we had in our squad and of course he was our frontline bowler. With no other alternative, I had to play with the injured thumb although I wasn’t even in a position to hold my bat properly. We knew that the opponents were a pretty decent bowling unit as observed from the statistics of their previous matches – and we were prepared for it. As lucky as it can get, I called correct during the toss and immediately announced that we were batting first. That still might have been a debatable decision considering the fact that we were a bowler short, but we wanted to play to our strengths and not bothering about opponents’ weaknesses.

Venkat got off the mark first ball with a light tap towards mid-on and Karthik sent one above covers for our first boundary. He fell in the first over trying to make room only to see his off stump disturbed. Soon later, Vishak and Venkat gave some catching practice to the fielders trying to strike over them. 3 wickets down right at the start and with Venkat back in the pavilion –this was something very new to us. Andy went in and looked very much settled out there with 2 wonderful boundaries before he mis-pulled a new bowler straight to mid-wicket. Kartik, rechristened “Mangalam Sir” by Venkat, went in with high confidence and in Murali’s company ensured that we didn’t lose any more wickets through the first half of our innings. Come drinks break and soon after he lost his control to offer a sitter. Murali on the other end rotated singles much easier than any of the others and at the same time protecting his wicket very well. I joined Murali in the middle and it was important that we didn’t lose any more wickets until 25th over. I wasn’t defensive, as I knew we definitely needed to rotate singles until I played all around a left-armer’s typical drifting spin delivery to see my middle stump rocked back. Batting at #7, I had to save the team from crisis as that was my key role in the team. That was very irresponsible of me to get out at that stage. I vow this will never happen again. But Murali showed immense persistence and few runs came in here and there with the help of Sriraj, Sunil & Ashwin – we put up a paltry 124 on the board for our depleted set of bowlers to defend.

Getting all-out within the stipulated time meant that “TORNADOS” (our opponents) had 30 overs to chase our target. We knew from ball #1 it was impossible to defend this score unless we bowl them out. Kartik started off with his big swingers and made life difficult for the batsmen whenever he pitched the ball. His full tosses were punished – but he produced a beauty of an in-swinging yorker to send the opening batsman back. But runs kept coming from the other end till I got a surprise bowler, Murali, into the attack. It was surprising even to most of our team members. It was a gamble taken by me, but a little calculated one, as I observed that the batsmen were not comfortable with swinging deliveries. Murali, although doesn’t have too much control of his swing, does swing the ball away from right handers and started with few wides. He then pitched one full outside off and the batsman driving it sent the ball over the cover region for what we all thought was a definite six – until Sriraj had different ideas. Converging towards the ball from deep cover, just as we all thought that the ball had reached maximum, he leapt up in the air timing his jump to perfection to pouch the ball safely with both hands that reminded everyone of Adam Bacher. This was the moment we all thought we could bring the match back within our reach. Andy’s words still ring in our ears – “If a person has taken such a catch we need to win this match”. From then on there was no looking back. I gave Murali another over – a bigger gamble – but he responded well with another wicket when Vishak held a good low catch at short mid-wicket. Few catches were misjudged and unattended, but we still kept on the pressure with Sunil being introduced. At that time they were 61/3 in 9 overs – well placed in their chase.

Sunil was at his mighty best right from start and kept the batsman on their toes with his rising deliveries. What was even mightier was the way in which Vijay started off his spell that left everyone in the field spell-bound. Few of his deliveries were untraceable as they fired itself into Andy’s gloved hands like bullets fired from a sniper. We kept an attacking field with Sunil and Vijay bowling in tandem and they bowled brilliantly to keep the batsmen in check and choking them giving little away. Sunil picked up 2 wickets before the drinks break with his deliveries that kicked off from good length – both batsmen offering sitters to point and short-midwicket fielders respectively where Venkat and Vishak made no mistake with their catches. At half time into the 2nd session they needed 50 more runs and more importantly we needed 5 more wickets. Till then I hadn’t introduced Ashwin only because I didn’t know whether to break Sunil or Vijay – a confusion that Imran Khan would have had when Wasim and Waqar were ripping through any side. Literally I had to ask opinions from almost everyone on this and finally decided to break Sunil after another over from him – the only reason being that it was the end suited for Ashwin. First over after drinks, Sunil induced a thick edge from the opening batsman (who was still around) straight into the hands of “Passionate cricketer” who garnered the sharp chance with ease – of course with his usual facial expression. 4 more to go and I pulled in Ashwin for his first over from the far end. He started off well and suddenly let loose a full toss which the batsmen heaved to deep square leg far away from where Vijay was positioned. As strong as his bowling on that day, he raced towards the ball and caught it with mighty ease – a very very good catch. Not many would have held on to it with so much ease. Ashwin had striked in his first over. 3 more to go and we were all fired up in the field. Ashwin, in his next over, produced a similar full toss that again went to Vijay, who running in this time, took another gem of a catch at deep square leg. That was 2 in 2 for Ashwin with 2 more to go. At the other end Vijay kept on tormenting the batsman with his fearsome pace. Ashwin’s next over had a left-handed batsman trapped in front and then there was 1 more to go – not before Venkat split a dolly of his own bowling in the previous over. We almost had our hands on the victory but had to wait till one more fell. With 104/9 on the board, Vijay induced an edge in the 23rd over of the innings straight to Andy’s gloves and that was the moment. All eleven of us went berserk and ran like mad. Vinod and “little Ashwin” came in racing from the pavilion to celebrate with us. I went straight to Murali, hugged him as tight as I could and immediately all smaller groups converged to form a huge hugging cloud of 13 people – 13 victorious people who formed the mighty WCC team that toppled the “TONARDOS” and redefined what a team looks like while playing this game of cricket.

For all I can say, we proved and discovered most of our real selves in the field. The energy we all displayed in the field was amazing and the bowling was awesome. The bowlers won the match for us more than the ever-persistent Murali who got to receive the Man of the match award for his 36 invaluable runs and 2 wickets. Vijay and Sunil were awesome with their length and I am proud of those guys. For once, our batting unit failed, but I ensure this will never happen again. Ragha was truly missed, but he would have missed the match much more. This was like winning a world cup in front of a home crowd. Millions of thanks to Vinod and “little Ashwin” – and this was one of the best matches I’ve ever played. And I hope every team member will agree to this.

Aditya Ravindran – Captain, WCC.

Scorecard

http://www.cmdn.com/scores/TORNODOZ-vs-WEEKEND-CRICKET-CLUB-5270

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