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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Holy Shit...thats a SIX

Cricket as we know runs through us Indian veins and hearts. And i must admit i have always given football a notch more importance in life than cricket. I've played a lot of sports and games in my life but this moment is gonna haunt me forever. Our cricket team POKRI  (not the Mahesh Babu movie) alias "POLARIS CRICKET" are a bunch of enthusiastic cricketers to say the least. We cannot boast of an exciting talent apart from a hand few but we are a very cohesive unit. Last year i started playing for Pokri and i have made some superb friends in and out of our team.  

Columbus, Ohio boasts a lot of cricket teams and the Indian community here plays 5-6 tournaments every year in Spring/Summer. This was a  T20 cricket ball tournament conducted by UCC and our opponent that day were Googly As the captain of our team i won the toss for the first time, ominous signs huh? We decided to bowl first and with some merciless hitting by Googly batsman Abhish and Mithun in the end overs they reached 140/5 in 20 overs. We had chased down a 130 in 18 overs in the same ground so we felt a bit confident that we could do it. Googly kept us on our toes and how about it when they got our opener Saran out in the first ball of the chase. Entrada Karthik aka TSB, he is simply the most talented batsman i know of after Ramakrishnan (my school buddy). There are people who can make batting look so easy (yeah like VVS) and these 2 come into that elite group. Karthik scored a breezy 60 with some short arm jab sixes and glorious pulls. Kamesh getting out and me entering the frame looked as if planned coz we needed 68 more in 6 overs. One six each by me and TSB brought us at a striking distance with number of balls and runs required. Next over we lost TSB and Abheesh (our current man in form), I was at the other end skeptical about our fortunes. Chaitu came in next and then the left-right combination started to click. Also some pressure might have caused the Googly bowlers to ball a lot of wides. Next over we lost Chaitu and Abhinav both getting run out, onus to some bad judgement from my side. Yeah, pressure can do that mother. 3 overs 29 required and Googly brought in their experienced bowlers. Let me tell you some sledging from their side pumped me up and I felt we gotta clinch this one. It all came down to last over with 13 required and Satya on strike. first 3 balls we ran 3 doubles. 3 balls 7 required i felt one four from somewhere and we are through. 4th ball of the over Satya tried to clear the long on but instead found his chest and he somehow the fielder managed to hold on to the catch.

We crossed over and brought made me to strike and it was 2 balls 7, Saran was our leg umpire that point of time and i remember saying to him 'it looks tight and might be unachievable'. Though somewhere inside an optimist sleeps inside us and pushes us 'we can nail it'. My dad was watching this match and i could see him yelling out instructions like 'Javed Miandad'. Sachin the bowler under pressure bowled a wide and now the equation was 6 required of 2 balls. You know what? a 7 required sounds unachievable in our mind but a 6 sounds way easier. Mathematically thats just 1 run but on a Psycholigical point of view it was totally 'get-able'. Last few overs i was beaten by twice by bouncing delivery outside offstump am sure the bowler noticed that. And expected him to bowl the next 2 balls there. I took my leg stump guard and stayed way ahead of my crease. The moment he reached the crease for the delivery i faked a walk across and 'Thank God' he bowled a good length delivery on to me. All i remember is a mighty swing, its more like a hybrid flick and 'Holy Shit thats a SIX'. Tony Greg would have been the right person to comment about it and i would have watched it a zillion times on youtube. But still what a feeling it was.

Next moment i was running across the pitch like a mad man, and Vas ran into me and was all over me. The whole team ran in from the boundary and we were rejoicing. Hugging each other and jumping around it was B-E-A-utiful. Yes!! this is once in a life time moments and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Mallik, Woah one had to look at him he was the most pumped up amongst us. Revan/Satya/Chidam the supposedly silent fellas were acting like total jerks and couldn't hide their happiness...we live for these moments dont we? And my Dad, Wow he was super excited. Him being there made this SIX so so so special not only for me but for whole of POKRI. End of the day we must not forget Googly too played some brilliant cricket for an entertaining match and we thank them for that.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The CRITIC inside you..yeah YOU

Criticism is a very common word these days and its in every ones dictionary or lingo. Critics are given godly status like Masand  or Manjrekar for example. But i have seen quite often there is a critic inside everyone throwing tantrums on others actions. The job of a critic is quite easy if you just sit and give negative comments about anything under the sun, but it gets that more difficult if you think of a solution or atleast put a motivating placard for the poor souls. FIlm, Politics, Sports any field you take there will be critics to bring a 'fresh' (lol) air of thoughts. But on a personal front am a NO-NO against criticism. Many of my friends who know me well would have noticed am not a big fan of criticism at a personal level. Though i keep myself away from criticizing anyone i would also not welcome from them as well. I believe i would rather motivate this 1 guy rather than criticizing another 100. Though all this i farely get my daily dose of criticism in many forms either as a comment or as an appraisal remark or as a feedback at work or even could be a banter with evil buried deep inside. I have noticed a few people enjoy this job of criticizing anyone just for the 'heck' of it. And there are no remorse in their action, all they want is their opinion blattered out loud. But i must also admit i am blessed with a closed circle of friends who not only criticize but take time in understanding why or what was behind my action or simply the way I am. Its overwheliming to see when someone suggests you a different way to look at stuff rather than pointing fingers. I must admit there were occassions in my life when a less adamant me could have done a better job rather than sticking my tongue out in the end. But as they say 'I am what Iam' coz end of the day it all matters to what you listen to the critic inside you than the one standing outside. There are a lot of places in life where you have to answer this question 'Whats the best trait in you?'. Offlate i think its me being a Self-Critic, yeah thats the one i am speaking of. The only one soul who is never happy, with the talent of Bhutia pushing myself to Maradona (metaphorically). Its not easy to answer him coz thats the only critic who wont buy your excuses and thats his beauty.