sport is something close to all our hearts, and it is because of our desire to be sportsmen that we manage to atleast become men.
cricket has always been a way of life for me. all my waking itme, all i ever think about (in addition to things essential to a male psyche) is cricket.
after 4 years of breathing the game in college, I suffered from what addicts weaned from drugs suffer from - "withdrawal".
I spent about a year trying to cling on to any scrappy form of bat-n-ball i could, even approached a club n almost started going.. that didnt work out.n i guess i'm glad that it didnt. because it meant tht i could find myself in the company of this supremely talented bunch, who love to live the game and know how to have a good time!
It kinda gave me something to look forward to on saturdays. its all been great fun trying to work with my limited ability to carve a place in this side.
but never have i felt this more strongly than on the day our team won the championship.
the whole MKM 2009-10 tournament was like a complete masala movie from my point of view.
This is an account looking from outside in.
The hero (read: Talent Bricks) starts off on a task, gets challenged, copes well, starts to dominate the situation when suddenly a natural disaster takes away the glory.
that was our first game. 25 hard overs of fielding, followed by a superb start to the chase, cut short by heavy rains. it was the back of our minds, how the points split might affect us at the end.
The next act of the movie is when the hero faces the villain's right-hand man. he shows great resilience, but gets beaten up bad.
that was our game against MBT. we started ok, but ended up giving away runs at a steady pace. the chase cudnt pick up momentum with Hrishi falling early.(i thinkn this was the only itme he got out relatively early in the tournament). Mahesh's fighting innings at the end gave a flutter of hope, but it was too much to claw back from.
Then followed the happy-happy sequences, the comic scenes, etc where for 2 games in a row, we batted first, scored in excess of 200 and bundled the opposition out cheaply enough.
one of them powered by Yashvir's lusty hitting at the death. we all kept cheering and he kept bludgeoning the cherry right out of AFK.
interestingly, we did just enough with those 2 games to give us a sniff of making the cut for the Quarters.MBT helped by losing an important game.
Interval.
act-4. Odds start stacking up against the protagonist.
We found ourselves in a must-win situation in our last game, and the points split in our first game loomed heavy on our heads.
We won that game convincingly... I was away at home, and biting my nails off. constatnly trying to call Amit and ask the score. i was over the moon to hear that we had won that game, with Hrishi scoring 80-odd.
act-5 build-up to the climax
QF against siemens.
Another one i missed.. another step on the road to victory.
then came the Semis.
KPIT were really worthy opponents. the team change to bring in Krunal paid dividends that day. Ashish and Hrishi's consistent performances at the top and Mahesh's contributions got that extra boost with Krunal's presence in the middle order, and his 3 cracking boundaries in an over wre in my opinion a major turning point of the innings. If my memory server me right, Yashvir's hitting came in handy on this one as well, with all of cheering for 15 more off the last over, then 15 off the last 5 balls then 15 of the last 4, then last 3 (and all the while it was raining boundaries).
the game was far from over though, and it was Yashvir's turn to rise to the occasion once again.
KPIT were going great guns, and it was that one brilliant come-back over from Yashvir that derailed their chase with 2 wickets.
I could sence the intense and renewed desire to go all the way, that was jsut re-ignited by that spark. The team rose like a pheonix from the ashes; fiery, brilliant and unstoppable.
act-6 Climax
the stage was set, everything that had led up to this day wouldn't really matter today.
the great starts by Ashish and Hrishi with the bat, Sripal and Yashvir with the ball, the build-up through the middle overs through Venu, Mahesh, Santosh, Shantanu, Krunal, the stranglehold applied by Ashish's bowling, Shantanu, Amit, Aniket's support with the ball, the all-round brilliant fielding, everything that led to this moment was only as good as the result on that day.
It takes a charismatic leader to keep a side together, build it up, take it up against clearly stronger oppositions, and inspire in it the sheer willpower to overcome all odds. It takes a leader with a keen eye, a great faith in himself and his team and an equally responsive bunch to cary out his every word.
We are blessed with two such personnae.
Ashish is the leader, Hrishi is the motivator, and flag bearer.
It was due to this faith our team has in each other's ability, commitment and the clarity of thought that comes with knowing what everyone's role on that given day is, that we were able to pull off what many would think was an upset.
afterall, the hero is always an underdog who against all odds emerges victorious.
I still remember that moment, the sheer joy imprinted on everyone's faces. Memories were etched that day, which nothing can ever earse from any of our minds,
and it makes me wonder, no, it makes me oddly jealous of the lot who got to lift a prize, any prize while playing for their country.
I salute the game, I salute sport itself, which has shaped our lives into what we are today.
