Wednesday, October 6, 2010

16 Dec 2008

While this match didn't exactly go as planned, and for the first time this season we actually
took a beating when we were cruising to another victory, it was one of the best matches we
have been apart of. In fact it was absolutely spectacular. It literally all happened. Actually
that’s probably a gross understatement.
Let’s review. Since the start of this season we have had some spectacular games and each
time we have a great match we think it's not going to be possible to top that. All those
matches we have won easily. Not so this time - and yet it was the best match of them all.
Those of you who were with us last year will recall the match we played where we needed an
outright win to get ourselves into the semifinals. We needed about 24 runs off two overs and
we got there with balls to spare. That match is etched deeply in the memory of the boys who
were there. Well, we now have another match that tops that, believe it or not.
And with matches like that, it doesn't matter whether you are on the winning or loosing side,
as long as you were a part of it. Or so they say. You be the judge.
This last match had the same ingredients of the India-Australia series - the one where
Laxman and Dravid played beyond their skins and turned the series around. Our opponents
were the number 2 side in the grade and they showed us why. We were lacking a number of
our senior veterans who said they had better things to do. Missing in action was Nirav,
Prasad, Rajitha, Chani (who appears to have been deported) and Rajiv who has yet to come
back from his fishing trip. Back in the line up was Sacha and we had a new old face Kailash –
aka KK.
Our opponents started the first day by batting and batting well. We got occasional wickets but
they had regular partnerships and kept the scoreboard ticking. Lasith did some serious
damage with the ball along with Aneesh getting some good swing and line. But our efforts on
the field were nothing to write home about. If anything, half the guys wanted to go home after
having to chase leather on a pretty hot day. They were not scoring fast, but they were not
getting out easily. We did however inch towards their last man.
In true Christmas spirit, they sent out Santa to bat at number 11. He was in a jolly spirit and
proceeded to hammer a few shots. He needed his elfs to help him get from one side to the
other. We were hoping to run out one of the elfs, but nothing doing. Ricky finally went to Santa
and asked him to grant a wish. Santa agreed. He then asked Santa to get out so he could bat.
He did. They ended on 238.
We had only 4 overs to see out the first day and no one wanted to bat because everyone was
tired. Lasith agreed not to bat because he was going to Lanka the next week and thought it
better that Rajitha bat on the second week instead. So Stanley took the reigns.
On the way out, Stanley said he'd take the strike. He wasn't kidding. In four overs we scored a
total of 70 runs! The other opener only scored 2 of those runs. Stanley got to 50 in 16 balls.
The opposition were all either on the boundary or hiding behind trees. The scorers had their
helmuts on.
Baner who had shown up at the grounds to support us agreed to do some umpiring and he
too made a call into the pavilion on his iphone for a helmut. Stanley had taken his AK47 out to
the middle again and was spraying bullets left and right. It was a good end to the day. We now
had to only chase 168 the following week. At our present run rate, we would only need 12
overs.
The following week came and we went back out to bat. Stanley picked up where he left off
and we had 147 on the board in less than 15 overs. He passed his 100 before everyone had
realised. The other opener had made it to 4 at this stage.
During this rampage, Santa got a bit worried about Stanley accidentally knocking one of his
elfs out of the sky and approached our bench. He said that Stanley should not be playing in
this grade. Then we lost a wicket. Fortunately it was the other opener who was merely a
cardboard cut out on the field. With less than a 100 runs to get and Stanley still in a foul
mood, it looked like a walk in the park.
But then Stanley got out. On the way back, Santa shook Stanley's hand and told him that he
was waisting his talent in this grade and should play somewhere else. As a team we agreed
that this Santa was definitely waisting his talents on the cricket field and should be posted as
our next ambassador to Afghanistan, where he will surely find a diplomatic way to tell Osama
where to go.
Everyone agreed that the remaining runs to get was so easy that they left it to the next
batsman to do until of course we ran out of batsmen. It didn't help that one of Sam's best
students was umpiring and he was firing his finger left and right - all it took was a bird to chirp
and he was sending batsmen back. One of their bowlers - a spinner - ended up with seven

wickets. We needed 20 runs to win. While the other team sent Santa in to finish the job for
them, we sent Santa’s nemesis – aka KK. KK has been known to terrorise young kids (mainly
under fourteens) in his neighbourhood on the cricket field. His acts of terrorism lasted two
balls.
We ended up 20 runs short. We were one batsman short as Rajitha was sick in bed, so it was
all over red rover. Everyone was playing what if scenarios. If only Rajitha was there. If only
Stanley had scored 220. If only we knew how to bat.
The time was about 3.30. We had sent a couple of the boys to the store and they had come
back with supplies - sausages and cheap beer. We all patted each other on the back and said
bad luck, let's celebrate.
But before we could open the beer and get the barbie going our skipper was on the field
talking to the opposing skipper. We saw them shake hands and then he ran back to tell us
that their skipper wanted to bat again and we had to take the field. This didn't bring out the
best in the guys. Nevertheless, we did a few stretches and headed out into the hot sun again.
Their openers came out slowly and shut shop immediately. They refused to play at anything
and we could not find the stumps. Our plan was to simply get 10 to hit the pad and count on
Sam’s pupil to do the rest. We didn’t succeed. We could not for the life of us figure out what
their plan was – why did they want to bat again if they were not going to try and pull off an
outright?
We couldn’t take the suspense any longer and decided to ask them. They said they had no
plan and wanted to know why we asked them to come out and bat again. The truth had been
revealed. We had been duped by our skipper who had wanted to play on, not theirs. Our
skipper then decided to pull another ace out of his sleave – seeing that the game was going
nowhere slowly. He told the umpires within hearing shot of the batsmen that we would bowl
another three overs and call it a day. This got everyone excited, especially their batsmen who
thought they had done their job and won the match.
So much so that we got 2 wickets in the over that followed. Then Charuka kept changing his
bowlers until he found 2 guys who could bowl and before we knew it, we had them all out for
50 runs.
So given that we were 20 runs behind them in the first innings, this meant we had to get 71
runs to win this game outright. The only problem was that we only had 45 minutes to do this
in.
Problem? What problem? The solution was simple - Stanley. We asked him to take his AK47
and get out there. He did. He forget to load the AK47 this time and fired a blank. He was back
in the hut on the second ball. By the 4th ball, the other opener was back in the hut and we
were now 2 down for no runs chasing 71 with only 9 overs to go.
Considering we were short a batsmen and the remaining batsmen only managed to score
less than 60 runs in total in the first innings, we started preparing the bbq. This was when
Charuka turned to the second page of his plan - the one he refused to share with anyone
else.
He started going hammer and tong at the bowlers, while the batsmen on the other end were
dropping like flies - actually even flies have longer life spans than that. The target was always
well out of reach - we needed something like 15 runs an over at one stage and with Stanley
on the way home at this stage, the cause was getting further lost.
Aneesh then tonked a six that gave us some hope. Charuka kept hitting the ball and reaching
the boundary and all of a sudden we were down to last over and we needed only 8 runs.
Aneesh, however, had managed to get himself out and Ricky our superhero made it out to the
middle and got a single first ball. Then we got a wide. Then Charuka hit a four. Then it was a
dot ball and Ricky ran like crazy only to be run out by the keeper. We now needed 2 off three
balls and Sacha made his way out to middle. He was on strike and we all looked at Santa to
ask him for one more wish - a single to get the scores tied. He told us to get stuffed. Sacha
in his usually cool manner did get the single and the scores were level. We had 2 balls to get
the remaining run. Charuka clocked the next one for 4 and we were home! It was the Stanley-
Charuka show. Charuka ended on 48. They have told us that nobody needs to show up next
week as they were going to print out 9 cardboard cut outs and use them as fielders while they
do all the work.
Three innings, 25 wickets, 270+ runs in one day and we came out with another outright WIN –
with one ball to spare! It truly doesn't get much better than that. Surely? If it did, you wouldn’t
want to miss it. Be there next time!

No comments:

Post a Comment