TRRRRINNNGGGGG...... the alarm clock goes off in your room ...akin to the cannons of Tipu Sultan and you are the subject of the most vile cuss words from your room mates who have been rudely awakened by your singing alarm clock...that too on a Sunday morning...finally you manage to smash your clock on the ground and breathe easy as the dying tones of it still linger in the morning calm....
And then you wonder...Why in the hell did I set my alarm for 6 am on a lazy sunday morning...probably i have to do some reading....And you awake with a start...READING??? wow i really must have turned a new leaf in the night...my parents will be so proud that I have become a wee bit responsible......and then your bubble coated dreams are pricked by a small pin of doubt....
Slowly the raucous sounds from a far away field quietly flirt with your auditory senses...AND THEN IT HITS YOU LIKE A SLEDGEHAMMER...Damn i forgot...its cricket season...and the most important match of our batch is just about to commence...
Yes folks it was cricket season..bang in the middle of the Mid sems we had our first taste of the cricket season with North Hostel winning the Inter Hostel...but what was to follow...is truly a an affirment of the fact that the Indian psyche is drunk on a heady cocktail of cricket...It is in the ingrained psyche of every indian guy to be a part of this gentlemans game...whether its the game play or the armchair theory or while discussing the nuances of the game ...the insatiable lust to be a part of the game is the true Indian stereotype.
The Inter branch challengers trophy was the brain child of MANISH SINGH,who had shown the cricketing fraternity a glimpse of his exceptional organisational capability by organising the Inter Hostel tournament within the holidays in the middle of our much dreaded mid sems.And all it took was Manish around 20 minutes to decide the match schedules and captains..Kudos Manish for your quick thinking...i love a guy who takes on- the- spur decisions..of not being a conformist....and not falling prey to the detractors who did not want the match to materialise..
Some glimpses of the tournament....
Sweaty palms....anxious moments...breathtaking catches....awe inspiring shots...nail biting finishes...frantic runs...tense moments...inflated egos....heated exchanges....friendly banter....crowd frenzy....bacchanalian revelry....crushing defeats...inspiring camaraderie...ecstatic winners...graceful losers...
You just had to be there to experience this gamut of emotions that were the highlight of the challengers trophy. The whole third year batch had converged on the East eden grounds..to witness the spectacle...The whole atmosphere was electric ..the tension was palpable and comments were never ending...
The wristy flicks of Bijay,the flamboyance of Shashank, the lower order slog from Pankaj,the mighty heave of Jagdish,the solid defence of JP,the crafty bowling of Sudarshan,the captaincy of Srimant,the wily deliveries of Shantanu,the batting of Digvijay had the crowd in a frenzy at the initial stages of the tournament...but they were knocked out in the forth coming matches....and it was the mother of all cricket battles in the final a mouth watering clash....the untested CIVIL side versus the favorites...ELECTRICAL..
And the Civil lot played their hearts out to register a shock win over the veteran Electrical boys...thanks to some steadfast partnerships in the middle order...and both the captains were epitomes of calm...SUSHIL AND ANUBHAV...one had skill...the other had guts...one had brawn...the other brain...one was leading with confident spirits ...the other countered with tempered aggression...more of a mind game than on the field....One had all the experience to back him up and the other had grown as a captain as the series progressed.....One was playing for pride ...the other was playing to conform the paradigm that DAVID TRIUMPHED OVER GOLIATH everytime...One relied on technique...the other on his common sense.. One was high on the hopes for a win and the other was out draw blood ...truly an eulogic account of the two captains who deserved to be in the finals..and they made their presence felt all the time.
Hats off to Anubhav for leading his side to a win and well played to Sushil for his sporting spirit..
Cricket is such a paradox ...sometimes it needs the collective effort of the whole team ...sometimes the efforts a single player,who steals the show...a fact that individual players in both the finalist teams were testament to...PARESH from Electrical or PP as we all know him and KAILASH from Civil...
To be dropped in the Inter hostel matches, of being labelled as out of form...came as a rude shock to them and were smarting on the sidelines...and then they found a chance...
It was as if the floodgates were opened...the ignominy of sitting out showed in the way they hit all kinds of bowlers with the ultimate disdain....for loquacious guys(ask their section girls) they simply let the bat do the talking...and after a win , after a milestone...the way they raised the bat to the air ....was a gesture to the detractors...IN YOUR FACE...
T
The similarities were endless yet the opposites were interesting...Both were cheeky charmers with their boyish good looks(once again ask their section girls),both of them were bowlers who could bat and batsmen who could bowl and both of them made it look as if cricket came naturally to them....And yet one favored the offside the other pulled to the leg...One used his natural height to get on top of the ball...the other took advantage of his low centre of gravity to use the backfoot judiciously....One was frantic...the other was impatient...One was a firm believer of the swashbuckling style of play...the other content with old school technique...One was comfortable in the deep outfield...the other was a close-in catcher
And both got what they deserved in the end..KAILASH..the man of the match award for his gritty innings that resulted in the win and PARESH the man of the series award for his stupendous batting display...both being die hard fans of Tendulkar...it was a fitting tribute to the silent maestro...ironic that amongst the rowdy banter on and off the field...it was just their bats that did the talking while not a word escaped their lips...
It was cricket at its best...Thank you Manish for such an amazing cricket experience....and for all my readers who could not watch the tournament...you just missed some spectacular cricket...sorry folks...by the way i got to eat as much glucose as i wanted at the scoreboard and shouted myself hoarse throughout the tournament.
Cricket...truly the beautiful game...
