Opening Challenge

When my captain indicated that I should open the innings in the match we were supposed to play during a tea time chat,  it immediately started giving me butterflies in the stomach, the ones that people say are when facing the first ball.  Immediately I came up with an alternative which would involve me batting in the middle order , a little higher than my position at 7.   I had opened before, not in the league's longer version which lasts 30 overs but in a sixes tournament where I was  in for a left - right combination at the top so that the bowlers would give some extra freebies called wides which counted for 4 runs.

There was a week in between and a nets session as well and while everyone felt it was an opportunity to get extra batting, I felt it was a punishment. What if the opening bowler would get me out first ball, the ball being new , fielders being up and I was not the type who could open my shoulders, stand beside the line of the ball and hit it over the top of mid off.

After having sized myself up with some shadow practice at home ,vowing to concentrate hard and watch the ball till the end , I dragged myself up to the ground.  It was afternoon and sweltering hot , normal for Singapore and I was breaking some extra sweat because we were batting first.  It was good that we were because there was no pressure of knowing how much the opposition had got and wanting to be ahead of the runrate and so on.  I padded up , had some throw ins, where I promptly was beaten by the first throw.

My partner piled on my misery by asking me to take strike as well ,  thought to myself that I wouldnt be in the dubious league of players who got out without facing a ball. Suddenly some thing told me that the bowler would bowl a jaffa which would make sure that though I had one bite of the cherry which would be the last.

Eventually , I persuaded my partner to take strike , used the experience tool since he had been opening before. Chatting to the umpire normally helps and I did that as well, tried to do a Sehwag by singing a Hindi song and that was it. After 2 balls in the first over and some running to do , finally I had the strike. After surveying the field, they did change some fielders for the lefhandedness in me, but nothing much that I could spot a gap and play it there.  I took guard , looked at the bowler running in from behind the umpire and the ball was a full toss on leg stump. It flew off my bat to deep fine and my feeling was that I had scored a boundary off the first ball I faced. It was just one run since the fielder had cut it off at the boundary my obvious disappointment.

Though a cliche and oft repeated that the first ball is the most difficult one to face, though I never thought so in the numerous instances of watching cricket on TV, it is in any form of cricket.  It definitely takes a lot to hit the first ball you face over the top.  Having survived the first test , still slotted to open in the next match , the butterflies are making a comeback, till the first ball that is...

Indian Roots

The IPL season-5 has come and gone.  Long drawn neverthless , but this was the first IPL where the team strengths were relatively equal , last ball results and at least 6 teams in with a chance of making the play offs.  Must be said though that the champion teams didnt exactly acquit themselves very well.  CSK in the league stages, DD and MI in the play offs .  The team which eventually triumphed , KKR was by far the most consistent of all, played to their strengths,didnt lose many home games, the team was also picked for the low and slow wicket of Kolkata with Shakib and Narine playing all the games at home.  Led ably by Gautam Gambhir who didnt overdo himself like Sehwag and scored runs to pull the team through many a time.

I watched many of the games ,not many of them fully especially the 8 pm one being more tougher to watch in the Singapore time zone with the slow over rates and Munaf Patel fair plays!!.   What struck me was in this season , more Indian cricketers seem to have got the hang of the game and the pressure situations which come with it.  Though some overseas cricketers did stand out, teams that had more Indians performing in crunch situations came up triumphs on the given day.  In a long drawn league, the stars will fail at some point and consistency has to be made do with some good Indian performances and Mandeep Singh, Awana,  Bisla , Anirudha made a name for themselves.  Matches were won or lost based on good or bad performances by the Indian fringe players.  When Mishra started tossing up his leg spinners and Piyush landed his googly , Deccan/Punjab  looked to be playing better. Badrinath and Murali Vijay made it count in the end by helping Chennai get monstrous totals and Bisla was required when KKR had to overhaul the target in the final , though helped in no small measure by Kallis. Pune was struggling because Uttappa was going nowhere and won the match where Ganguly came to the fore with the ball.

At last the Indian Premier league seems to have rediscovered its Indian roots and the crowds also came to the venues and rooted for the home players and their Indian heroes.  True that IPL performances dont count for Indian team selection but the selectors and the media have put a Paul Valthaty on the selection radar and wont take much time to discover the Bislas and the Mandeeps.

Finally it was apt that Manoj Tiwary scored the winning runs , many Indians who saw the Australian dominance  in Chennai yellow , were happy that their reign had ended and that stood out for me as the defining moment of the league which is of the Indians , for the Indians and by the Indians.

Let us keep it this way...