Saturday, 31st March 2007
A Humdinger of a cricket match
Every weekend, the local cricket enthusiasts (mostly Indians and Pakistanis) get together to play cricket in a baseball field at Lawton, CA. A thrilling match played out on my second week. Incredibly, one of the blokes (Gaurav) managed to tape the exciting climax to the match. The situation was as follows. After amassing a huge 103 in 12 overs, everything seemed like smooth sailing (typically 75 is a good score on this ground) for the defending team (my team) until Manjunath (the batsman in the video) unleashed a series of big hits to make the unimaginable target seem possible. Going into the last over (which i was privileged to bowl) they needed ten runs to win. The following ensued.
6 balls, 10 runs :- Manjunath picks an easy single. Bowling team is happy to just give singles.
5 balls, 9 runs :- The batsman holes out in an attempt to locate the boundary. They cross to give manjunath the strike.
This video captures the remainder of the match.
4 balls, 9 runs :- Batsman underedges a wide slower delivery to the wicket keeped. No run. Bowler is thinking that taking the pace off the ball will make it hard to hit boundaries and the batsmen will hole out trying to make the pace.
3 balls, 9 runs :- An attempt to bowl a really slow ball goes horribly wrong as the batsman reverse sweeps the ball for a six. Since we are playing in a baseball field, the offside boundaries are very small. To add insult to injury, it is called a no-ball (over the waist). Problem is that idiosyncrasies of the game are such that the non-striker is the umpire and judges no-balls, wides etc. Clearly this was an error in judgment. Also as part of the rules, no runs are awarded for extras, (only the delivery is illegal).
2 balls, 3 runs :- Another attempted slog results in a top edge which goes to the weakest fielder in the ground (an elderly gentleman whom we hide in fine leg always). What should have been a run out at the batsman's end ultimately results in a run out at the bowler's end when they attempt to scamper a non-existent single.
Watch the video before you read furthur!!!
1 balls, 2 runs :- Plenty of mind games going out here. First the bowler pulls up in his run-up stride and warns the non-striker of backing up too far. The bowler repeats the same thing (pulling out of his bowling stride) to build the frustration of the batsman. Finally the ball is bowled, it is on a length and seams in a touch to beat the batsman's attempted forward prod. Quite obviously (going by the type of stroke played), the batsmen were clearly looking for a tip and scamper single to tie the game (safety first approach). The batsman is comprehensively beaten (plumb lbw infact) and the dot balls means that the bowler has won the game for his team.
The defending team has won (by 1 run) and the bowler and everyone are ecstatic with the thrilling victory. Don't forget to miss the celebration dance (similar to the Indian cricket team).
Posted by Nikhil on Saturday, 31st March 2007 in Sport | Life in General | Fun