A Cricket Fiasco…

Well for the past two weeks ,I have had enough of Poems
and Tags. Now, I have decided to write something different. Few days ago I came across a friends blog, in which he mentioned about his cricket team doing well in the Ashok nagar championship tournament. Thank you Rajesh, now that has inspired me to write something about Cricket.Oh!! Gosh, not the good things about cricket, I mean the humiliating defeats that our team encountered during mine tenure as a captain.I mean it would be an insane thing as I was the captain just for 4 games.

By then, I was just a College going adolescent. I went to live at my uncle’s place during my summer vacations. At that time all youngsters were indulged in some sort of cricket tournament in Navi Mumbai. I asked a boy perhaps a guy of 21 about the cricket fever and he informed me that there some sort of cricket tournament was to be organized t in Navi Mumbai. I was really excited and I represented my Uncles Apartment team (say “nm” ,can’t say the real name).Through shear practice and hardwork I got selected in that team ,by then I never realized that I would be announced as the captain.

It was our first game and at the same time it was India Vs England match at Lords. It was our first game and our team was like the current Ireland team.We were rated as the underdogs .The stadium was too big and we were playing against a strong team which we could only dream of defeating them.The Captains walked in for the toss.I was the youngest captain of the tournament (just 17 then).I won the toss and we decided to field first.It was a 10 over match popularly called as T10 (similar to T20).We were excited when we entered the field.We had some discussions going on in the dressing room and our Coach Mr Shashikant asked us to play sensibly and not to give up at any circumstances. Here we go .The first game was a big source of inspiration for us as we got to learn many new things from the opposition which we eventually went on to lose by 48 runs. After that we really played well and went on to win 7 matches on a streak which ultimately booked a semi final berth for us.We were playing the champions XI in the semi finals. We decided to field first as previously we had won all the matches chasing scores. The game started and only then we realized that we were haunted and hammered for 4’s and 6’s all over the ground. I couldn’t think of anything ,that led us to pressure as one can’t afford to lose a semifinal game .It was the 9^th over and by then I had used all my bowlers .I had no options and I decided to bowl the last over ,a similar sort of situation prevailed in the previous match and I went on to take a hat trick on that over .I bowled the first bowl of the 10^th over and he pulled it over the square region for a six. He hit 5 consecutive sixes on my first 5 deliveries. I was nervous and I was confused for a while like where to bowl and last bowl he hit a four over long on.I gave away 34 runs in my only over of that match which led to the event of we chasing 139 for victory. Our players were very nervous and We made a good start ,but at one point their off spinner did the damage and we were bowled out for 68.A lot was expected from me ,but I failed although I was the top scorer for my team with 27 runs. That was the biggest defeat I ever experienced and I was upset of the fact that I was the leader .After that match I returned to my place and regular collegel lectures started. It was a big fiasco .
“Shame on you Stephen ,a feeble captain unable to put your team to victory”,thats what my college friends used to say after that match .I never bothered to play after that as I didn’t wanted my studies to suffer .It was indeed a big cricket fiasco.