Yet Another Software Junk | മറ്റൊരു പാഴ്‌ജന്മം

Do you ever remember your practice matches? We do remember one of our practice session.

A word about my local cricket team, ppcc (PattaParanmbu Cricket Club). Being a very small team we never won a title. but don't underestimate us. We were a regular visitors to semi finals. Once organizers recognized us as the best(fighting) team in the tournament (which was not a scheduled award). Major teams nearly smelled the taste of mud while playing with us, several times !!

We have no star batsman...naa bowler. average age of the team :17. no giant figures. Still we won matches !!! How!!! We play offside well :-) none of our opponents aware about this fact. They keep on bowling offside. we enjoyed it well. Who will dare to bowl leg side if the batsman confidently fencing even offside balls.

May be we have got courage or you may say winning equation from this particular practice session.

Our home ground is pretty small, so that we could play only one side. Yeah...we choose to master offside. On a fine evening, Varghese-our manager cum player, brought a new bat !!! wov...but it was a bit heavy one compare to our normal playing bat.

We started a 10 over game with 6 member team on either side. We won the toss and elected to bat without a second thought. Of-course ..new bat... new start :-)

First ball, the batsman couldn’t move his bat. I was on the non-strikers end and wonder why ?? the ball was not so fast. Second ball kissed the bails off !!! 0 for 1 (0.2 overs)
Third ball takes the middle stump :-( 0 for 2 (0.3 overs). Here comes our best batsman cum captain with determination not to donate his wicket for a hat trick. 4th ball, beats the bat but luckily missed the stump. I was wondering, what happen to Danex, our captain. It is not easy to beat him. He looked at his bat unbelievably, twisted the bat once, took his guard and practice a bat movement for the previous ball. 5 th ball, he had tried to cut it to the square, but ball came into rest on keepers gloves. 6th ball, pickets his off stumps !!! ohh man. Now we are in trouble. 0 for 3 (1 over)

Now it was my turn; exchanged my old bat to new; draw an imaginary half-circle on my front; ready to play front foot. A kind of defensive mode ! Danex gave me a warning to study the bat. Yeah..it is heavy ! but is it that much to worry about ? I didn’t get what he was said.

First ball, felt like a lollipop, decide to cut it to the fence. But … beaten !! haa ..why more to explain, on the third ball, I was caught behind :-( There is ghost in the bat !!! we couldn’t turn the bat when we require it. Score board: 0 for 4 (1.3 overs). 4th ball, haa Josmy arrested the ball by his bat. And he rose his bat and waved like he got a century ! A huge clap from the pavilion. He was the first batsman among us who at least touched the ball ;-) 5 th ball, he was caught and bowled by Anoop. Score board: 0 for 5 (1.5 overs). Hence score board was zero, opponent allowed to bat our lastman on his demand. Yeah..he want to face the ghost in the bat ;-). 6th ball, he smash the ball with full confident. All are searching the ball on boundary line. But keeper happily showed his inner glove. It seems ball was laughing at us. Last man also couldn’t live more than a ball. Scoreboard: 0 for 6 (2.1 overs).

We were too ashamed of ourselves; no team ever all-duck on this ground. We have got a new record. We know…just one single is enough to finish the game. Or at least a wide will kill us as well. But Danex’ captain-mind arose like a phoenix bird.

If the ghost is there in the bat, it will be still there !!! If we were all-duck, we can kick them all out for same score. This is our ground !!! May be we can not win… but we can make a tie !! fight !!!

Yeah.. he is correct. Why can’t we try for a tie. If one worse thing happens to us, why can’t we give the same fate back. Danex toss the ball towards me. Me !! first over? I was doubtful. He whispered – “No wide”.

He set two slip fielders, assign himself for close fielding, and one near to the bowler's end. No boundary line, no gully !!! All set … Batsman stretch his body in an outside half-circle and hold his bat horizontally; kind of warning to Danex that he is going to smash the ball… a kind of silence spread over the field. Everybody can hear the beats of their heart. Tick tick tick… I looked at my captain… He shout in an aggressive sound “Off cutter buddy”, it was just to threaten the batsman.

That moment I started the lineup and as he shouted …an off cutter.!! Within a split second, batsman smash the ball; but it just kissed the bat and a great catch by Josmy, our safehands. Then everything else was history in our home ground.
Second ball, pickes the leg stump, 5th ball... an off stump, 6th ball a plum return catch. Score board : 0 for 4 (1 over)

Next over: Danex took the ball, assigned Josmy to close fielding, 2nd slip moved to 1st slip, me on gully and the fielder nearer to bowler's end moved to square boundary. Nobody questioned him why he require a gully and a square boundary. His first ball picked an off stump, second ball to the close fielder. That was a terrific catch too.

Score board 0-0. An unbelievable tie!! All duck !! unforgettable innings.

End of the story: we never use this bat again for our tournaments, but we used to master the off cuts using the very same bat. Yeah…it was equivalent to face a terrific off-cutter.

And I would say Rahul Dravid has a lot of things to learn from local team captain. He should learn how to inspire his team members, how to adapt into the situation, and how to inject confidence and fighting mood to the bowler.